In January 2002, in collaboration with the Prison Writing Committee and with PEN Center USA West in Los Angeles, the Freedom to Write Committee joined the effort to halt the execution of Stephen Wayne Anderson in California. Anderson, who was convicted in 1981 for a murdering a woman whose home he was attempting to burglarize, began writing poetry in prison and in 1990 was a co-recipient of PEN American Center's Prison Writing Award for Poetry. In its January 10, 2002 letter , PEN appealed to the governor of California for clemency and a commutation of the death sentence to life in prison without parole. Despite the efforts of PEN and a number of other organizations, Anderson was executed later that month.

Four other recipients of PEN's Prison Writing Awards are currently on death row awaiting execution. At its February 2002 meeting, Freedom to Write Committee agreed to join with the Prison Writing Committee in seeking to have their sentences commuted. You are urged to join in this effort, both by writing to the governors with jurisdiction over their cases and, if you wish, writing to them directly to express solidarity.

• your appeal is for commutation to a life sentence

• as a member of PEN, you support PEN's organizational opposition to the death penalty internationally, which is consistent with the position of every major human rights organization around the world

• there are serious concerns over fairness in the application of the death penalty, concerns which have led the governors of two states, Illinois and Maryland, to request a moratorium on executions

• continuing executions and questions over the fairness of death penalty proceedings in the U.S. compromises our ability to challenge unjust legal proceedings overseas
  

For more information on PEN's Prison Writing Program, please click here.