ACTION ALERT - December 2009: Write a Letter to the Editor on the DPIC Report

A new report from the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) shows that death sentences in the United States hit an all-time low in 2009.  The report notes that the economic recession and budget issues forced many states to make cuts to essential areas like education and law enforcement in order to maintain their capital punishment system.

In addition, nine people were exonerated from death row in 2009 - the second highest number of exonerees since reinstatement of capital punishment over thirty years ago.

You can help get the word out about why the death penalty should be abolished by writing a letter to the editor to your local newspaper. 

We have two different sample letters regarding the DPIC report:

A letter regarding the issue of cost is available here.

And a letter regarding the risk of killing the innocent is available here.

On each of those pages, you can take the letter we’ve got, copy it into your word processing program, print the letter and mail or fax it in to your local paper. Or, on those pages, you can use the online tool to find a local newspaper and submit your letter to the editor right here from the website. Or, you can copy the text, and then submit your version to your local neighborhood, community, or political blog.

Here are some good general tips about writing letters to the editor:

1. State the point of your letter in the first sentence, and spend the rest of the letter backing up your statement. Reiterate your original point at the end.
2. Use data whenever available. One key statistic to back up your statement can add much more weight to your argument than without it.
3. Keep it short – 250 words maximum, or below the limit stated by the publication.
4. Stay on topic. Avoid extraneous information that does not back up your original point.
5. Write concisely. Try to avoid overly long sentences.
6. Use a personal voice. It’s a letter, so it doesn’t need to be written as you would an article.

If you have gotten your letter published, email us at info@ncadp.org so we can link to it.  Thanks for helping us get the word out!