Working against the death penalty in Texas - the number one execution state in the United States.

TMN lobbies the Texas legislature and works to educate the public on the need for a moratorium on executions. We can send a speaker to organizations to talk about the death penalty.
In 2007, TMN filed a complaint with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct against Judge Sharon Keller, presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. It was signed by about 1,900 people. In 2009, the Commission formally charged Keller with incompetence and misconduct. Her trial begins in Ausgust 2009.

TMN campaigns for specific people on death row, such as the recent one to Save Jeff Wood and the 2007 campaign for Kenneth Foster.

Annual March to Stop Executions, co-organized by Texas Moratorium, Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, Campaign to End the Death Penalty - Austin, Texas Students Against the Death Penalty and Texas Death Penalty Education and Resource Center, among others. The 10th Annual March to Stop Executions will be in Austin in October 2009.

Anti-Death Penalty Alternative Spring Break is an annual event in March. It is open to both high school and college students.

The anti-death penalty spring break is organized by Texas Students Against the Death Penalty and was founded by Texas Moratorium Network in 2004. It is designed to give students something more meaningful to do during their week off, rather than just spending time at the beach or sitting at home catching up on school work. This is the place to be if you want to become a part of the next generation of human rights leaders. Go to the beach to change your state of mind for a week, come here to change the world forever.

Students will participate in workshops led by experienced, knowledgeable presenters who will teach them skills that they can use to go back home and set up new anti-death penalty student organizations or improve ones that may already exist. The skills participants will learn can also be used in other issues besides the death penalty. During the week, students will immediately put what they learn into action during activities such as a Death Penalty Issues Lobby Day and a Direct Action Day. There will be opportunities to write press releases, speak in public, meet with legislators or their aides, and conceive and carry out a direct action.

"This is an historical echo to what happened in the 1960s when people came down to the South during the Civil Rights Movement to help people register to vote, what they called freedom summers. This is very similar to what was going on back then, but here the issue is the death penalty." said Scott Cobb, president of Texas Moratorium Network, who started the Anti-Death Penalty Alternative Spring Break in 2004.

Death Penalty Art Show Justice for All?: Artists Reflect on the Death Penalty was exhibited in Houston at Gallery M2 from February 10 - 18, 2007 with an opening night reception at 7 PM on Feb. 10th. It was also exhibited in Austin at Gallery Lombardi in 2006. In 2007, a selection of artworks from the show was exhibted in the Texas Capitol.

The Austin Chronicle said "the show is nothing short of powerful."

There are 55 pieces in the show, selected by three jurors: Annette Carlozzi, senior curator at the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Lora Reynolds of the Lora Reynolds Gallery in Austin, and Malaquias Montoya, an artist and professor of art at the University of California, Davis.

The works on exhibition were selected from more than 700 submissions from more than 300 artists from 19 countries. The show includes artists from Texas, as well as other U.S. states and Canada, France, Germany and The Netherlands. The exhibit contains mostly work by professional artists, but it also includes 13 works from people currently on Texas death row. The exhibit includes paintings, drawings, photography, sculpture, videos and installation art.

We organized this international, all-media, juried art show to foster the creation of new artwork on the death penalty and to encourage and enhance civic engagement and dialogue about the death penalty.  

Texas Moratorium Network (TMN) is a grassroots, non-profit organization with the primary goal of mobilizing statewide support for a moratorium on executions in Texas. It has more than 20,000 members, about 85 percent of whom are in Texas with the rest in other U.S. states and in other countries. To accomplish its goal, TMN is engaged in various educational and outreach projects and works closely with other groups devoted to human rights and criminal justice reform, including other non-profit organizations, churches and synagogues, civic organizations and student groups. We believe that significant death penalty reform in Texas, including a moratorium on executions, is a viable goal if the public is educated on the death penalty system and is encouraged to contact their elected representatives to urge passage of moratorium legislation.

We hope that you will join us in this fight for fairness and social justice. Please join our email list and become one of the more than 20,000 people receiving information through our network. You can also find us on Facebook, MySpace, YouTube , Flickr, Amazee, or our blog.