I won't quote the Bible or the great song anymore, I promise, but the lyric/passage seemed particularly appropriate last night at our monthly Nashville TCASK meeting. Last month we witnessed the state murder Sedley Alley in all of our names. Next month, Stephen Hugueley's life may be taken, and, with execution dates set in September (for Daryl Holton) and October (for Donnie Johnson), we all have a tendency to push forward to our next campaign.

But something horrendous did occur and our names are attached to that death certificate and the cause of death that reads "homicide". And that is not an easy thing to process, particularly when many of the people around you don't understand your pain, and feel that "justice was served".

So, even while we look ahead to these possible executions, and even as we lay our plans to organize all around the state to truly end the death penalty, and ensure that what happened to Sedley Alley never happens to anyone else ever again, we need time to grieve together, and be with one another. So on the one month anniversary of Sedley Alley's execution, Friday July 28th, we will gather together at the new TCASK office in Holy Name Catholic church to simply create space for us to be together, as a community, to begin to process this tragedy. We talk so much about the need for healing after a violent crime and it is important that we follow our own words when the state is the perpetrator of that violence.