Reprieve Australia Newsletter, July 2009

1 July 2009

Reprieve Australia’s latest newsletter reflecting on what our members and supporters have helped us achieve over the past 12 months. Also, provides information on how to become a member or renew your membership.

Read newsletter in pdf file here

Reprieve Australia Newsletter, June 2009

Dear friends and supporters of Reprieve Australia

Membership Renewal

Please remember to renew your annual Reprieve membership before the end of June. You can click [here] to follow the easy prompts to our on-line membership renewal. At $40.00 waged and $20.00 unwaged, this is one of the best investments you're likely to make this year!

It's worth reflecting on what your support has helped us achieve in the last 12 months. You'll see that throughout this update, we link to pages on our website. I encourage you to bookmark the website [here] and return often. We update it regularly with news items about the work of Reprieve internationally, and also with items about the state of the death penalty around the world. Thanks to our friends at Lander & Rogers, we've also been compiling profiles of all executing countries, which you can read [here]. We'll continue to add profiles of different countries as they are completed.

Inaugural Reprieve Lecture

In October, we hosted the inaugural Reprieve Lecture at the State Library of Victoria. The lecture was delivered by the Honourable Justice Lasry of the Supreme Court of Victoria. An honorary life member of Reprieve Australia, Justice Lasry will be known to you all for his work previously as a barrister advocating on behalf of those facing the death penalty. You can read Justice Lasry's address [here]. We were delighted that Lady April Hamer was able to join us on the evening and that we raised further funds for the Sir Rupert Hamer Internship Fund (about which see more below). We also took the opportunity to confer upon Brian Morley Honorary Life Membership for his work as campaigning against the death penalty. You can read our profile of Brian [here].

'At the Death House Door'

In November, I was honoured to be invited to speak at the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival (HRAFF) in Melbourne, at the showing of 'At the Death House Door'. HRAFF is Australia's very first human rights film festival and was created by a group of Melbourne University students (including former Reprieve intern and Volunteers Co-ordinator, Anna Martin). They should be congratulated for putting together a fascinating program of events and we look forward to the next festival in March 2010. You can read a précis of At the Death House Door [here]

Lecture by Richard Bourke

Richard Bourke made a flying visit back to Melbourne in March, from his home in New Orleans. He generously gave up part of his precious holiday to Reprieve and approximately 100 of us were lucky to hear him speak at Melbourne University about his work for impoverished clients facing the death penalty in the US. His lecture was a sobering reminder of the realities faced every day by the dozens of pro bono attorneys whose work Reprieve Australia supports. While no transcript is available of the lecture (giving the audience the benefit of a brutally honest description of his work), the Age profiled Richard in an extensive feature which largely reflected the content of the lecture. You can read the article [here].

Also in March, our founding president, Nick Harrington, was interviewed on ABC774 Drive Time with Lindy Byrne about the work of Reprieve in the US and the role played by our interns.

Death Penalty Panel Discussion

In May, we hosted a forum jointly with the Public Interest Law Clearing House at Clayton Utz as part of Law Week. Reprieve Honorary Life Member, Julian McMahon, and former intern, Matthew Goldberg, joined with Joel Backwell to speak about their experiences acting pro bono for clients facing the death penalty. Julian has acted for several prisoners facing the death penalty, including his current work for Myuran Sukumaran, one of the so-called "Bali Nine". Joel is a solicitor at Freehills who has worked with Julian on that case. Matthew is a graduate lawyer with Robert Stary and Associates, and last year volunteered at Louisiana Capital Assistance Center (LCAC). You can read his profile [here].

Intern Program and First Hamer Fund Intern

Throughout the year, our committee and former interns have visited various schools, universities and residential colleges, promoting the work of Reprieve Australia and the internship program. These talks generate the greatest number of interns and are an invaluable tool for spreading the message about Reprieve. We have a number of speakers available should you be interested in arranging for us to speak to a class or community group. You can email us at contact@reprieve.org.au if you'd like to arrange for a speaker. Thanks are due in particular to the Monash University and University of Melbourne law schools, and the Castan Centre for Human Rights, for their continued interest in Reprieve Australia and support of the internship program. In coming weeks, we will be speaking at The University of Melbourne and Monash University.

I'm proud and delighted to report that Lucy Larkins and Anna Renou are both returning to the US for further internships throughout the year. Lucy has already arrived in New Orleans and is working on a project sponsored by Reprieve UK. Lucy will use her one year fellowship at LCAC to address the plight of mentally ill defendants facing capital punishment in Louisiana. The project aims to improve the conditions of confinement for seriously mentally ill capital defendants, to arm lawyers with the tools and training required to better serve mentally ill clients, and to ensure that mentally ill defendants who are facing the death penalty are properly represented and assessed at competency hearings. The Sunday Age featured an interview with Lucy before she left, which you can read [here].

Anna Renou's return is particularly exciting, as she is the first recipient of support from the Sir Rupert Hamer Internship Fund. Lady April Hamer and her family have kindly allowed us to name the fund in honour of Sir Rupert's key role in abolishing the death penalty in Victoria. We established the fund to assist former interns return to the US for a further internship when they might not otherwise have been able to afford the return journey. All our interns are self-funded, are not able to earn an income while volunteering in the US, and face considerable expense living and volunteering in some of America's most expensive cities for months at a time. An intern who has previously been trained in the workings of the American legal system and who is familiar with a particular case or jurisdiction is particularly valuable to the pro bono attorneys we support. Anna is about to complete her Law / Arts degree at the University of Melbourne and will depart for New Orleans very shortly where she will return to LCAC.

You can make a donation to the Sir Rupert Hamer Internship Fund [here]. Every cent donated will be used to support a previous intern return for a further internship in the US to continue their important work.

Reprieve Australia has decided to run for the Hamer Fund at the Melbourne Marathon this year and we would love it if you joined us. The events will be held on Sunday 11 October and includes a 5km walk or run, 10km run or walk, Half Marathon (21km) or a Full Marathon (42k). Help us make this our biggest fundraising event yet! Get friends, family, fellow employees and neighbours to sponsor you and even run with you. All proceeds go to the Hamer Fund to support our interns in their quest to return to the US and continue their work against the death penalty. For more information please email our team captain, Anna Martin volunteer@reprieve.org.au or go to http://www.melbournemarathon.com.au/. Our team is called "Team Reprieve" so if you register for the event make sure you use the drop down menu to find our team name. Further information about this event will also be available on our website in the coming days.

Meanwhile, we continue to recruit new interns to send to the US. In the last 12 months, Rebekah Bessant, Sally Teale, Megan Grosse, Matthew Goldberg, Samantha Hammersley, Anna Dawson, Michelle Cox, Sophie Cull, Tatjana Rhode, Maire Grimes, Donna Rushbrook and Sarah Luckock have gone to Louisiana and Texas to volunteer as interns with LCAC, Gulf Regional Advocacy Center, The Capital Appeals Project, Texas Defenders Service and the Capital Post Conviction Project of Louisiana. Matt Jackson, Simon Anderson, Samantha Gash and Saige Exner are due to leave in coming months. You can read profiles of our interns [here]

We love hearing news from our past interns about what they're doing now, and how the internship influenced their lives. In recent weeks, we heard from Olivia Henderson. You can read Olivia's profile [here]. If you're a past intern, send us an email telling us what you've been up to, and we'll update your profile on our interns page.

News from Our Patron - The Hon Michael Kirby AC CMG

While our Patron retired from the High Court bench earlier this year, he has most definitely not retired from public life, and I am very pleased to report that Michael Kirby has remained actively interested in the work of Reprieve Australia. You can link to his website [here]. In a recent address to the Victorian Bar Pro Bono Committee, Justice Kirby commended in particular the work of Victorian barristers who have dedicated themselves to the defence of those facing the death penalty.

In a recent email, referring to a case he describes in his Bar Council paper, our Patron had this to say about Reprieve Australia and its interns:

"I am indeed very proud of the achievements of Reprieve Australia and of the interns and supporters who had contributed to the struggle against the death penalty. My own experience in Mallard is proof of the fact that mistakes can happen, even on the part of conscientious judges. Please pass on my special congratulations to Lucy Larkins and Anna Renou. They are heroes".

They are indeed, as are all our interns. Thank you for continuing to support Reprieve Australia. Please go to our membership page [here] to renew your membership and continue to support our work for another 12 months.

In Closing

Don't forget to let us know if you change address. Put contact@reprieve.org.au in your address book so you remember to tell us if your email address changes. If you do not wish to receive further emails from Reprieve Australia, please reply to this email with the words "Unsubscribe" in the subject line.

Thanks to Lander & Rogers, for its support of our volunteers program, Clayton Utz for hosting the Law Week forum, and DLA Phillips Fox for continuing to supply us with office space and administrative support. The support of these firms is invaluable and helps make the work of Reprieve Australia possible.

Rachel Walsh | President

ReprieveAustralia Inc | GPO Box 4296 Melbourne Victoria 3001
contact@reprieve.org.au

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