Abraham J. Bonowitz co-founded Death Penalty Action in 2017 and has served as its executive director since 2020. He has been one of the leading organizers in the death penalty abolition movement since he changed his mind on the issue in the late 1980’s. As such, Abe has had a hand in each of the legislative repeal victories thus far, starting with when he served as the Field Manager for New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, which in 2007 became the first state to legislatively repeal capital punishment since 1964. He then worked as the Director of Affiliate Support for the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and was deeply involved in passing legislation to repeal capital punishment in New Mexico, Illinois and Maryland, and was also involved in passing such legislation in Connecticut, Nebraska (since reversed via referendum), New Hampshire, Colorado and Virginia.

Abe has worked with the Catholic Mobilizing Network and served for a time on its founding board of advisors. He worked extensively with the Delaware Repeal Project, where death penalty repeal legislation passed in the Senate twice before the Delaware Supreme Court threw out that state's death penalty. More recently he helped pass legislation in 2024 to scrub all capital punishment-enabling language from the statute and in 2025 helped pass legislation to begin the process of prohibiting the death penalty within Delaware's state constitution. Abe helped develop and run a campaign to oppose a statewide referendum (SQ776) which added capital punishment to the Bill of Rights of the Oklahoma Constitution. He ran similar campaigns in Florida in 1998 and 2000. Abe co-founded Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty and helped create South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, Utahns Against the Death Penalty and Idahoans Against the Death Penalty. He has served on the board of directors of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, the Journey of Hope…From Violence to Healing, and Amnesty International USA.

Abe has helped produce numerous direct action and non-violent civil resistance events, including nine arrests protesting the death penalty (Three at the US Supreme Court on Jan 17, 1997, 2002 & 2017, two in PA, and once each in OH, NC, SC and TN). Current case law governing limitations of first amendment activity on the grounds of the US Supreme Court is styled Bonowitz v. United States, stemming from the Abolitionist Action Committee’s first January 17th action at the US Supreme Court in 1997.

In a brief departure from anti-death penalty work, Abe was one of the original staff members of the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation from 1994 to 1997 and as such participated in many Farm Worker movement activities in California. Abe helps coordinate the activities of the Abolitionist Action Committee and engages in various social justice advocacy campaigns in Ohio. He has one adult son and lives in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and her cats.

NOTABLE AWARDS & RECOGNITION

• Death Penalty Abolitionist of the Year, 2004 - National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
• Man of the Year, 2016 - St. Ambrose Men's Club, St. Ambrose (Catholic) Parish, Cheverly, MD (Notable because he is Jewish.)
• Coalition Partner of the Year, 2023 - Libertarian Party of Oklahoma
• 2024 Free Press Libby Award for Lifetime Achievement in Community Activism