We are less than 3 weeks away from James’ execution date. For our Florida residents, we are urging you to contact your legislators and tell them you are paying attention to the effects of their recently passed legislation that expanded the death penalty and made it more unreliable. We want them to know we are watching what they are doing, especially with the 2025 session starting in a few months. Please ask your friends, families, and communities to send letters too.
For our non-Florida residents, please make sure you have signed our petition. In the next week or so, assuming the Florida Supreme Court does not stop this execution, we will have an additional letter-writing option for both our Florida and non-Florida residents, which will go to the Governor and the Clemency Board, so be on the lookout for that.
Our friends at Catholic Mobilizing Network have also created a way for people of faith to advocate for James Ford – click here to take action.
Oftentimes, when we are in an execution cycle, it is easy to make that our singular focus, with so many moving parts all the time.
However, I would be remiss if I did not pause to share with you some good news from the last week – After nearly five decades on death row, 79-year-old Tommy Zeigler’s legal team has received new DNA evidence that exonerates him from the 1975 murders of his wife and in-laws at their Winter Garden, Florida, furniture store. The recent analysis, which includes blood patterns, rug fibers, and cat fur, aligns with Zeigler’s longstanding claim that he interrupted a burglary, contradicting the prosecution’s original narrative that he orchestrated the killings, purposely shot himself, and attempted to frame others.
We are standing in support of Tommy and his legal team and are hopeful that he will soon be Florida’s 31st death row exoneree, after an unimaginable 49 years on Florida’s death row.
Finally, on February 4th, 2025 from 5-6 pm, I will be joining Tampa Bay area death penalty abolitionists at Allendale UMC on the northwest corner of Ulmerton Road and 49th Street North in Pinellas County. We will be standing together and speaking out against Florida’s broken death penalty system. I hope you will join us. Please contact FADP for more details if you live locally and want to attend.
Onward,
Maria DeLiberato
FADP Executive Director
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