Massachusetts Citizens Against the Death Penalty, Inc. is the oldest death penalty abolition organization in the country, founded in 1928 in response to the executions of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti.

There have been no executions in the Commonwealth since 1947, thanks in part to the leadership and vigilance of MCADP members.

Massachusetts came perilously close to reinstating the death penalty in 1997 when legislation failed on a tie vote. Since that time, new bills to reinstate the death penalty have been introduced in every legislative session. Though these bills have all been defeated, defeat each time has been achieved only through hard work by a large number of people.

The continuation of this work requires the participation of every person in Massachusetts who opposes the death penalty.

The pages on this site and the links supplied to other web pages can help you stay informed about the status of the efforts to keep the death penalty out of Massachusetts as well as news about the death penalty around the country.

The Ehrmann Connection

Sara Ehrmann was an early executive director as well as member of the board of the organization and later served as its chair. Herbert Ehrmann, early in his career as an attorney, served as a junior counsel for the defense during the last two years of the Sacco-Vanzetti case. He later authored two books on the case: The Untried Case: The Sacco-Vanzetti Case and the Morelli Gang (1933 and 1960, The Vanguard Press) and The Case that Will Not Die: The Commonwealth vs. Sacco and Vanzetti (1969 Little Brown).

MCADP's Ehrmann Award is named in their honor.

Current MCADP Chair David Ehrmann is the grandson of Sara and Herbert Ehrmann.