Death Penalty Focus was founded in 1988 when a group of committed abolitionists joined forces to create an organization that would raise awareness of just how unfair, racist, and barbaric the death penalty is.

That first meeting, held in a Los Angeles living room, brought together men and women from a variety of backgrounds, professions, religions, and political parties with a single shared goal: to eliminate capital punishment, focusing on California, but assisting activists in other death penalty states when needed.

During these 33 years there have been successes and losses, frustrations and achievements, but the men and women who founded DPF, many of whom remain as involved as they were from its founding, have seen their movement grow beyond their expectations. Thanks to its thousands of supporters around the country, and its firm belief that the more our citizens learn about our broken death penalty system the closer we will get to it abolishing it, DPF continues its mission to educate, advocate, and organize.