Meeting with Burke Butler, executive director of Texas Defender Service

Texas Defender Service is the organization that lifespark has, so far, financially supported the longest, actually since 2006. It has been a nationwide leader in the fight to end the death penalty. Through a quarter century of litigation and advocacy, Texas Defender Service has transformed the legal landscape for people facing sentences of death in Texas. We have given voice to the humanity of our clients, their families, and their communities, and led transformative policy initiatives for people facing death sentences, including creating a statewide public defender office, the Office of Capital and Forensic Writs, to represent capital defendants in their state habeas proceedings, and achieving passage of a law, among the first of its kind, to permit new trials for defendants whose convictions were premised on junk science. https://www.texasdefender.org Over the years, a few of our penpals have benefited from TDS’s expertise and commitment. Burke will present TDS’s work and then will answer any questions that the attendees might have. As a reminder, part of your annual membership fee goes to such organizations; therefore, you might be interested in learning how your money is spent! We encourage you to take this opportunity to meet with someone who is “at the heart” of the work of defending and supporting our penfriends and other death row prisoners.