TCADP is pleased to offer virtual programs as well as in-person events such as our Annual Conference. See below for details on upcoming and past events, as well as events hosted by partner organizations.
Upcoming Events
Community & Coffee in Dallas
Join your fellow TCADP supporters in DFW on Thursday, July 18, 2024, from 9:00 to 11:00 AM, at Union Coffee (3705 Cedar Springs Rd, Dallas, TX 75219). Deputy Director Tiara Cooper will hold space for anyone interested in learning more about TCADP and connecting with our efforts and upcoming events. To RSVP, email TCooper@TCADP.org.
Justice & Java in Houston
RESCHEDULED! Join TCADP Board Members in the Houston area for coffee on Saturday, July 27, 2024, from 9:30 to 11:00 AM at Slowpokes (Garden Oaks/Oak Forest location; 1203 W 34th St. Suite D., Houston, TX 77018). These gatherings are a relaxed setting for meeting other TCADP members in the region, sharing your passion for this cause, and learning about current campaigns and initiatives. RSVP to TCADP Board President Angelle Adams: angelleadams1@gmail.com.
TCADP Book Group
The TCADP Book Group meets every six to eight weeks on Zoom and reads a mix of fiction, non-fiction, and memoirs (see below for a list of everything we’ve read together). Our next selection is The Power of One, a novel by Bryce Courtenay. We will discuss the book on Zoom on Wednesday, September 4, 2024, at 7:00 PM CT. Register here.
Past Events
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Noose to Needle: The legacy of race and the death penalty in Texas
On May 30, 2024, TCADP co-hosted an important conversation about the intersection of race and the death penalty, featuring TCADP Deputy Director Tiara Cooper, Estelle Hebron-Jones, Director of Special Projects for Texas Defender Service (TDS), and Furonda Brasfield, Director of the Noose to Needle Project.
Participants learned about persistent and ongoing racial disparities in Harris County’s use of the death penalty, as documented in a report published by TDS earlier this year and exemplified by the case of Duane Buck. The panelists also explored the historical connections between lynching, racial terror, and the modern death penalty and shared their perspectives on intersectionality. Watch a recording of the webinar on YouTube.
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Anatomy of a Wrongful Conviction: The Case of Charles Don Flores
Did you know someone can be convicted and sentenced to death without any evidence linking them to the crime scene? That’s what happened to Charles Don Flores, who has spent more than 20 years on death row for a crime he maintains he did not commit.
On June 8, 2023, TCADP, with support from local and national partners, hosted Anatomy of a Wrongful Conviction: The Case of Charles Don Flores in DeSoto, Texas. During the community forum, attendees heard from these speakers:
- Christopher Scott, a Dallas County exoneree
- Gretchen Sween, Flores’s appellate attorney
- Dr. John Wixted, an expert on memory and eyewitness identification
You can watch the live stream of the event here: https://www.facebook.com/cdf999299/videos. (This was recorded by a friend of Charles Flores who traveled from Colorado to be there!)
Bilingual panel discussion: “The Years of Fierro”
On May 12, 2021, EPF Media, TCADP, and Witness to Innocence hosted a special panel discussion related to the documentary film, “The Years of Fierro,” and the case of César Fierro, who spent four decades on Texas’s death row before his sentence was reduced. He was paroled in 2020. Throughout his ordeal, César maintained his innocence of the crime for which he was convicted in El Paso in 1980. The panel was conducted in English and Spanish and featured the filmmaker, Santiago Esteinou, two of César’s attorneys, Sandra Babcock and Dick Burr, and César himself. Watch and share the recording.
Past TCADP Book Group Selections
Little Shoes: The Sensational Depression-Era Murders That Became My Family’s Secret by Pamela Everett
He Called Me Sister: A True Story of Finding Humanity on Death Row by Suzanne Craig Robertson
Chain-Gang All- Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose
Confessions of an Innocence Man by David Dow
The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace by Jeff Hobbs
We’ll Fly Away by Bryan Bliss
Crossing the River Styx: The Memoir of a Death Row Chaplain by Russ Ford with Charles Peppers and Todd C. Peppers
Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption by Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton
Death Row: The Final Minutes by Michelle Lyons
That Bird Has My Wings: The Autobiography of an Innocent Man on Death Row by Jarvis Jay Masters
Notes on an Execution: A Novel by Danya Kukafka
Corrections in Ink by Keri Blakinger
Junk Science and the American Criminal Justice System by M. Chris Fabricant
A Descending Spiral: Exposing the Death Penalty in 12 Essays by Marc Bookman
Reflections on the Guillotine by Albert Camus
The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton
Let the Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty by Maurice Chammah
Infinite Hope: How Wrongful Conviction, Solitary Confinement, and 12 Years on Death Row Failed to Kill My Soul by Anthony Graves
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
End of Its Rope: How Killing the Death Penalty Can Revive Criminal Justice by Brandon Garrett
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
The Guardians by John Grisham
Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam
Chasing Gideon: The Elusive Quest for Poor People’s Justice by Karen Houppert
Punishment Without Crime: How Our Massive Misdemeanor System Traps the Innocent and Makes America More Unequal by Alexandra Natapoff
Narrative Change: How Changing the Story Can Transform Society, Business, and Ourselves by Hans Hansen
An Execution in the Family: One Son’s Journey by Robert Meeropol
River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey by Sister Helen Prejean
The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas by Anand Giridharadas