A year ago we reported in our newsletter that a young activist, who was 14 in 2002 when she was illegally arrested at a protest, decided to donate a significant portion of the compensation she received. The donor, now in her 20’s, wrote: “Naturally some of the settlement needs to go back into the activist pot.”

Recently, we received a second very generous donation from another protester who received similar reparation. She wrote:

In our last newsletter I wrote about the rising tide of new applications we’ve been receiving at the RFC this year. I noted that this was not surprising given a number of factors, including the growing number of those arrested at protests in each year since Obama took office. I wrote:

During the mid-1970’s I traveled to Philadelphia while I was engaged full-time in the effort to reopen my parents’ case. A very young, African-American radio journalist interviewed and provided me a platform to discuss my parents’ frame-up. We agreed about so many things that the show became more of a discussion than an interview. At the end of the show he posed a question I had been asked many times before: if I thought a judicially sanctioned, politically motivated killing - like my parents’ execution - could happen again in this country.

The spring and fall are usually my busiest work-travel seasons. I’ve just returned from such far flung places as Portland, OR and Paris. While on the road I’ve watched the explosion of “occupations” inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement (occupywallst.org, @occupywallst, facebook.com/occupywallst, #occupywallst, #OWS).

(Guest blog by Jenn Meeropol, RFC Associate Director)

It’s been a very busy few weeks at the RFC. My father has been on the road (to Portland, OR for a successful RFC party and then to Paris for international anti-death penalty work). Meanwhile, the postmark deadline for fall applications is today (October 13th) so I’ve been busy fielding inquiries from potential new and current beneficiary families.