People of Faith Against the Death Penalty (PFADP) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, interfaith non-governmental organization whose mission and purpose is to educate and mobilize faith communities to act to abolish the death penalty in the United States of America. It focuses on organizing among faith communities in the South, where most executions take place. It was founded in 1994 in North Carolina. People of Faith Against Death Penalty is one of 121 member organizations of the

World Coalition Against the Death Penalty The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty is an international alliance of NGOs, bar associations, local governments and trade unions that aims to strengthen the international dimension of the fight against the death penalty. Objective and ...

, whose mission is to strengthen the international dimensions of the fight against the death penalty and, ultimately, to obtain the universal abolition of the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

. A prominent member of PFADP was the late Dean Smith,

Basketball Hall of Fame The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and pre ...

head coach of the

University of North Carolina Tar Heels The North Carolina Tar Heels are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The name Tar Heel is a nickname used to refer to individuals from the state of North Carolina, the ''Tar Heel ...

. Smith was part of a 1998 delegation that confronted then-

Governor of North Carolina The governor of North Carolina is the head of government of the U.S. state of North Carolina. The governor directs the executive branch of the government and is the commander in chief of the military forces of the state. The current governor, ...

Jim Hunt James Baxter Hunt Jr. (born May 16, 1937) is an American politician and retired attorney who was the List of governors of North Carolina, 69th and 71st Governor of North Carolina (1977–1985, and 1993–2001). He is the longest-serving governo ...

, with Smith quietly calling Huntand everyone else in the room, including Smitha "murderer" for allowing capital punishment to take place.

References

{{Reflist Interfaith organizations Anti–death penalty organizations in the United States Religious organizations based in the United States Organizations established in 1994 1994 establishments in North Carolina