The records of the Michigan Coalition Against the Death Penalty, 1966-1987, are arranged in one alphabetical series. Material includes brochures, executive committee memoranda and minutes, local chapter information (from Grand Rapids, Lansing, Oakland County, Washtenaw County, and Wayne County), newsletters, newspaper clippings, position statements in opposition to capital punishment, press relations, speakers manual, and a videocassette, "Trial and Error," which depicts the trial and execution of a Detroit area resident in Sandwich, Ontario in 1837. Also present, in small quantities, is material from the Citizens for Capital Punishment and Religious Leaders Against the Death Penalty organizations.
The Michigan Coalition Against the Death Penalty was formed in 1979 to provide information to the public concerning the legal, ethical, and practical implications of capital punishment. It was at this time that Oakland County Prosecuting Attorney L. Brooks Patterson and Citizens for Capital Punishment were leading a petition drive to place on the ballot a proposal to reinstate the death penalty in Michigan for a first-degree murder conviction. Citizen action group formed in 1979 to provide information to the public concerning the legal, ethical, and practical implications of capital punishment. Executive committee memoranda and minutes, position statements, press material, newsletters and other publications, and videocassette.
Michigan Coalition Against the Death Penalty (MCADP) attempts to establish local affiliates in communities throughout the state and to provide support and direction for these groups. The organizational direction of MCADP is determined by the executive committee, which is composed of representatives of the local affiliates. MCADP is one of nearly one hundred organizations affiliated with the National Coalition Against the Death Penalty.
Michigan, in 1846, became the first English-speaking government in the world to outlaw capital punishment. That decision may have been the result of the execution of a Detroit area resident in Sandwich, Ontario in 1837. Patrick Fitzpatrick was accused of the rape of the inn keeper's daughter at the inn where he was a boarder in March 1837. He maintained his innocence, but was hanged in October 1837. Three years later Maurice Sellar, who had been Fitzpatrick's roommate at the inn, confessed to the crime. The death of an innocent man, combined with the revulsion of the large crowd that had gathered to witness the execution, helped influence the Michigan legislature to ban capital punishment nine years later.
No executions were carried out in the state under Michigan law after that date, though Anthony Chebatoris was executed at the federal prison in Milan in 1938 following his conviction under federal statutes for murder during an aborted bank robbery. The execution took place despite attempts by Governor Frank Murphy to have it moved to another state. The death penalty was retained for treason until the adoption of the new constitution in 1963.
Several unsuccessful attempts, led first by State Representative Kirby Holmes and then by Oakland County Prosecuting Attorney L. Brooks Patterson were made during the 1970's and early 1980's to place on the ballot a proposal to reinstate the death penalty for a conviction on the charge of first-degree murder. The earlier efforts failed to gain the required number of valid petition signatures, and a 1986 effort was halted when the Michigan State Supreme Court voted to uphold a 1973 law requiring petition signatures to be collected within 180 days of submitting them to the state for verification.
