Reggie Clemons is featured on our letters page as well, with a video of a Guardian interview, so please check that page out.  What is unique about his case (sadly being on death row in America with a very dubious conviction isn’t unique) is that the state of Missouri Supreme Court assigned a ‘special master’ judge to investigate the reliability of his conviction. The review starts on 17 September. Please tell the Missouri Authorities to use this opportunity and stop the execution of Reggie Clemons.

Amnesty International UK have asked us to circulate a petition for our monthly action of September. We will do so at our meeting on 13th September. If you are not able to attend, please fill in the online petition here. Better still, download a  petition and get family and friends to fill in as well.

Thanks to everyone who helped out on Saturday.  And a warm welcome to
Daniela who stayed for over two hours having only just made contact with our group! Street collections are not everyone’s idea of fun, as you can stand for ages being totally ignored by everyone…

We raised £109 – which is quite a big sum for Christchurch. Again, thanks for all who helped out.

Anna Moreton help the group’s first AmnesTEA last weekend in Southbourne. The concept is simple – you invite people around for tea and cake – and encourage them to make a donation.  That hides the amount of work behind the scenes, plus trying to publicise the event (and then work out numbers).

I know Anna was supported by family, friends and other group members  – many of whom donated cakes (she is still probably having cake for breakfast!). She has a lovely garden and the weather held fair….  But as with organising anything you never know what (or who) to expect).

It was a tremendous effort by Anna, with a great result. As she says:-

‘The Amnestea raised £102.81 on Saturday and I’ll round it up to £110.  So thank you to everyone who baked, ate, and ate some more – cake.  I still have some left!!  The sun did shine and it looks like we got one of the few days it appeared.!!”

So be inspired, anyone who is thinking of doing a similar event. And talking of fund-raising – don’t forget the Christchurch Street Collection on Saturday 28th  July…..

Please Sign the Petition

We are in Bournemouth Square this Sunday (13th May) afternoon collecting signatures for an Amnesty International petition. We want David Cameron to join Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband by publicly committing the UK to lead the way in securing a bulletproof Arms Trade Treaty.

No one knows for sure how many hundreds of thousands of people were killed in Iraq under Saddam Hussein. But we do know that at least some of the weapons used to do the killing came from companies based in the UK and USA. The weapons were sold to him even though it was known he was committing such atrocities.

World leaders meet in July to draw up the first ever treaty aimed at controlling this deadly trade. With your help, the Arms Trade Treaty can help save thousands of lives. But it will only succeed if it makes clear that arms shall not be transferred where there is serious risk that they will be used to commit human rights abuses and atrocities as well as fuel poverty. [Read more…]