MVFHR Board of Directors
Stan Allridge, member of the board of directors, is a family member of murder victims (both his mother's parents were murdered, in separate incidents, and his maternal aunt was murdered as well) and also a family member of the executed (two of his brothers were executed in Texas). Stan has spoken against the death penalty in several venues, including a large public presentation with Sister Helen Prejean, an Amnesty International press conference in Jamaica, and a panel at the U.S. Human Rights Network conference. He works to educate audiences about the effects of the death penalty on families and particularly on youth.
Bill Babbitt, member of the Board of Directors, has spoken publicly about the way the death penalty affects families of the executed since his brother, Manny, was executed by the state of California in 1999. His story is told in the book Capital Consequences and in the documentaries And Then One Night and A Question of Justice. Bill has spoken at a press conference at the United Nations, testified before legislative committees in California, Massachusetts, Washington, and New Jersey, spoken at a Capital Case Defense Seminar, and addressed many student and legal audiences about mental illness and the death penalty.
Jeanne Bishop, Treasurer of the Board of Directors, is the sister of Nancy Bishop Langert, who was shot to death along with her husband and their unborn child in 1990. Bishop has testified before Illinois the Governor’s Commission on Capital Punishment, the Illinois Prisoner Review Board, and several state legislative committees. She appears in the death penalty documentaries The Innocent and Too Flawed To Fix. Along with her sister Jennifer, she received the Brigid Award from Concern Worldwide, honoring women who exemplify justice, generosity, and compassion in their work and daily lives. Bishop serves as assistant public defender in the Office of the Cook County Public Defender and is an adjunct professor at Northwestern University School of Law in the trial advocacy program. She is the author of several law review articles and op-ed pieces, serves on the Advisory Board of the Northwestern Center on Wrongful Convictions, and volunteers for the gun violence prevention organizations Million Mom March and the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence.
Reverend Walter Everett, member of the Board of Directors, serves on the board of Pennsylvanians United Against the Death Penalty and speaks several times a month to audiences around the state. He has testified before the Joint Judiciary Committee of the Connecticut General Assembly and spoken to hundreds of audiences in both Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Everett’s son, Scott, was shot and killed in 1987, and after a long struggle Everett was able to reconcile with the man convicted of the murder, to the extent that the two now speak together at prisons, universities, and churches. Reverend Everett has been active in several restorative justice organizations, including the Restorative Justice Task Force of the Christian Conference of Connecticut (for which he has served as Chair) and the Hartford-based Board of Community Partners in Action.
Aba Gayle, member of the Board of Directors, has been an outspoken death penalty abolitionist for several years. Aba Gayle's daughter Catherine Blount was murdered when she was 19 years old. Twelve years later, Gayle contacted the man who took her daughter's life to tell him of her pain and grief, and of a spiritual quest that led to forgiveness. The leter resulted in a profound healing for Aba Gayle. She visited San Quentin death row and became convinced that the death penalty was a violation of human rights, and has been an abolitionist ever since. Aba Gayle serves on the Board of Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, The World Forgiveness Initiative, and The Catherine Blount Foundation. She has traveled and spoken publicly with the Journey of Hope and MVFHR. Her travels have taken her to many states and to Scotland, France, Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Taiwan, Province of China. She has been the subject of several documentaries including The Closure Myth, In Catherine's Name, Hate vs Forgiveness, From Violence to Healing, and a new Walking Interview to be shown in the Netherlands in December 2011.
Yolanda Littlejohn, member of the Board of Directors, is the sister of Jacquetta Thomas, who was murdered in North Carolina in 1991. Two men were arrested for Jacquetta's murder. One was never convicted; the other was tried, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison. In 2009, he was exonerated and released from prison when DNA evidence proved that he could not have been the killer. The murder of Jacquetta Thomas is now a cold case – an unsolved homicide. Yolanda has been active in the effort to repeal her state’s death penalty and speaks frequently to groups, telling her story and discussing the effects of exoneration on victims’ families.
Bill Pelke, member of the Board of Directors, is the president and co-founder of “The Journey of Hope … from Violence to Healing,” an organization that hosts annual speaking tours led by murder victims’ family members who oppose the death penalty. He has served on the boards of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and Alaskans Against the Death Penalty, and he has spoken against the death penalty in numerous forums across the United States and in 10 other countries. Initially a supporter of the death penalty, Pelke eventually became involved in an international effort to spare the life of the 15-year-old girl who was sentenced to death for the murder of Pelke’s grandmother, Ruth Pelke. Bill continued to speak out against the juvenile death penalty up until the Supreme Court’s 2005 ruling in the Simmons case.
Vicki Schieber, Chair of the Board of Directors, has been outspoken in her opposition to the death penalty since her daughter, Shannon, was raped and murdered in 1998. Vicki and her husband Sylvester actively opposed the death penalty for their daughter’s murderer and have published op-ed pieces about the death penalty in the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Washington Post; their story is also included in an NBC film on the death penalty sponsored by the Robert Kennedy Foundation. Vicki has testified before the U.S. Senate and several other legislative venues, and speaks regularly to church and student audiences. In 2008, she served as a member of the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment.
James Staub, member of the Board of Directors, is active with Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty and has spoken publicly at schools, churches, and civic groups throughout the state. James's mother Patricia Staub was murdered in Georgia when James was 12 years old. Her murder remains unsolved.
Bud Welch, President of the Board of Directors, became an ardent spokesperson against the death penalty after his daughter Julie, along with 167 others, was killed in the bomb blast that destroyed the Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995. Welch has testified before 22 state legislative bodies, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, the Russian Duma, and the British and European Parliaments, and addressed groups at universities, law schools, and religious organizations across the U.S., Europe, and Asia. He serves on the board of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and was a member of the board of the Oklahoma City National Memorial Foundation. For his work as an anti-death penalty activist, he has received several “abolitionist of the year” awards and other honors and been interviewed for numerous print and broadcast news stories.
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