The Committee to Free Debra Gindorf met on January 6, 2002. In attendance were Colin Tysoe, Anita Denmark, Jeanne Berger, Jim Zdunek, Dave Webb, Barbara Andrikos, Stephanie Bowen, Kathy Hamill and Robin Slater.
The meeting began with Kathy filling the group in on some new developments. The most important was the discovery that we have a deadline of February 18 for the filing of the petition. If we file after that, our hearing will be in Springfield, which is very inconvenient. Filing by February 18,
2002 will get us a hearing in Chicago. The hearing will be on April 2, 3 or 4. The exact date will be announced about a month before the hearing takes place. We will have 20 minutes to present our case. We can request more time, and will do so, if we think we will need it.
Although the petition must be filed by February 18, it can be supplemented after that. It would be best to have all substantive supplements submitted well before the April hearing; however, letters of support can be sent to the Board and the Governor right up until the petition is ruled on. The ruling probably won't be made until the end of this year.
Our fund-raising efforts have not gone as well as we had hoped. Early success gave us false optimism. We have collected a couple hundred dollars so far. We will use that money for mailing requests for letters of support to people who lack email and for making color copies of some of our most compelling exhibits the baby books and photo albums which Debra meticulously maintained to distribute to the Board members. We are still hoping to hire a psychologist to do a fitness evaluation of Debra. We have found one who will do the evaluation and appear at our hearing, all for a radically reduced fee of $2,000. If we can come up with that sum by the end of February, we will be able to get the evaluation done in time to file it as a supplement to the petition. PLEASE CONSIDER MAKING A MONETARY CONTRIBUTION TO THIS CAUSE.
This is true. A few weeks ago, a very old man hobbled over to my car in the Jewel parking lot, said, "I'm doing a good deed," and seized my empty cart. "Wow, thanks!" I said. "Just buying a ticket to Heaven," he replied. Just thought I'd toss that in. If we somehow end up with extra money, we will deposit it in Debra's trust account, hopefully to help her get started in a new life outside prison.
Jeanne Berger is serving as our treasurer. She has established a bank account for us and is in the process of getting us an Illinois tax number.
Kathy was able to contact Dr. Ed Loew, a psychologist who has been treating Debra at Dwight since she arrived there. Ed is willing write a summary of her current mental state and he may be able to appear at the hearing, all without charge. However, he will not be doing the full-blown evaluation we would like to hire someone to do.
The next matter which was addressed was the need for letters of support. So far, we have received exactly one letter, from a member of Postpartum Support International. This is disastrously low--we must generate a show of community support or all is lost.
PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO WRITE A LETTER OF SUPPORT FOR THIS EFFORT. Send the letter to Kathy, either by mail, FAX ((847) 695-8959) or email. And please ask others to write letters as well. We can't possibly gather too many letters. The guidelines which you received now are on
this web site. (Guidelines for Letters)
Kathy and Robin sent out 265 emails soliciting letters of support from people in the postpartum disorder community all over the world. So far, they have received maybe 10 responses, all of which have been promises to write letters. Even if that effort does bear fruit, there is still a need for letters from citizens of this State. It also would be good to be able to say that this petition is supported by people who are not tied to the postpartum community, but who think that Debra's life sentence is too harsh, considering all the mitigation which exists in this case.
Kathy has been in touch with other lawyers who have defended women in cases like Debra's. A community of attorneys involved in such cases seems to be forming. Once the petition is done, Kathy will send a copy to the trial judge, along with a letter asking for a letter of support. A similar approach will be used to solicit a letter from Oprah. Oprah is aware of Debra's case and has taken an interest in the postpartum issue, generally.
Anita North has discovered that Willow Creek Church has a postpartum support group. Jeanne Berger will contact them and ask for letters in support of the petition. Jeanne also will contact area Unitarian churches seeking letters of support. Colin Tysoe also volunteered to contact groups such as Amnesty International for supporting letters. Anita Denmark will contact churches with prison ministries to seek support.
Jeanne is going to pay a visit to the head of the Illinois chapter of Postpartum Support International and see if we can get some support from that group. Stephanie Bowen offered to solicit contributions and support from people she is connected with. Barbara Andrikos will contact her connections and attempt to obtain more contributions.
One problem we have with this effort is that we can't bring Debra to the hearing so the Board can see her in person. The group generated a great idea to address that deficit. Kathy is going to arrange to have Debra call her collect at her home. Kathy will ask Debra to say a few words about her experience on the night of the crimes and her present state of heart and mind. Robin will tape the conversation. Copies of the tape can be submitted to the Board and the Governor and the tape can be played at the hearing. Kathy also has asked Debra to see if she can get her picture taken at Dwight, so we may have a recent photo to show them, as well.
Kathy has been informed that JAMA (the Journal of the American Medical Association) will run an article updating the state of research on postpartum disorders, most likely later this month. Hopefully, it will come out in time to be referenced in the petition. If not, it can be filed as a supplement.
The documentary-making subcommittee met after the general meeting. We now have a story board for our movie. Taping will begin on January 15 with an interview of Kathy and Mary Beth, the former investigator from the Office of the State Appellate Defender who worked closely with Kathy on the first petition. Kathy obtained copies of the crime scene photos which we will be using as stills. The taped conversation with Debra also will be used in the documentary. Anita Denmark and Stephanie Bowen are looking for old news articles about this case to use in the video. We also are in need of original music to use in the documentary. If you can help with that, please let us know. Also, feel free to jump in on this documentary project, if it sounds interesting to you.
The Committee to Free Debra Gindorf will meet next on Sunday, February 4 at 2 p.m. at Kathy & Robin's
house. Please try to make it to this meeting. This will be our last meeting before the petition is filed. The final draft will be done by then and a plan for how to approach the hearing will start to be formed. Again, if you can't come to meetings or volunteer any time or even if you can PLEASE write a letter of support. Please ask others to do the same. And, if you can, please put a down payment on your ticket to Heaven by sending a check, however large or small. The more money we get, the more we can do.