Judith Filler Foundation Grant Recipients
2025 Grant Awards
$171
Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement,
Zoom account fee for group meetings.
$5,000
Texas Defender Service
In-Person Austin CLE for Capital Defense Trial Lawyers In-Person Austin CLE for Capital Defense Trial Lawyers
$15,000
Texas Defender Service
Capital Communications Support 2025
Distribute Client stories in the media and create social media campaigns.
$10,000
Beathard Project Fiscally Sponsored by From the Heart Productions
Produce documentary about James Bethard, a likely innocent man executed by the State of Texas.
$8,000
Justice League
Fund apprentices/interns to conduct post-mortem investigation into several executed Texans claims of innocence.
$3,655
Clinton Young Foundation/Execution Watch
Fund expenses related to broadcasting coverage of Texas’ scheduled executions on KPFT FM Houston 90.1 FM and newsletter.
2024 Grant Awards
$20,000
Texas Defender Service
Research and prepare report on racial bias in the administration of the death penalty and charging of capital murder in Tarrant County, Texas.
$10,000
Texas After Violence Project
Educate mental health community about the traumatic impact of the death penalty on family members of persons sentenced to death or executed and provide the family members with mental health services.
$10,000
Texas Defender Service
Research and report on the qualifications for attorney appointment on capital cases in Texas administrative judicial regions.
$6,471.53
Save Jeff Wood Campaign
Technology to create and update new web page, SaveJeffWood.org, exposing the injustice of the law of parties in Texas death penalty laws, which resulted in Jeff Woods conviction. Additional funding for materials and supplies for participation at anti-death penalty events and protests.
$1,480
Kids Against the Death Penalty
Materials and supplies to support the energetic young adult participation at protests and anti-death penalty events, including the 25th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty held in Houston Texas, October 2024.
$10,000
After Violence Project (Formerly known as Texans After Violence Project)
Covered post-production costs for the 928 Records Documentary Project, a film about the descendants of one of the 928 people in Texas who received a death penalty between 1922-1990. The film has been submitted to number of national film festivals and will be released publicly once the film festivals have wrapped up in late 2025.
$2,589
Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement
25th Anti-Death Penalty March held in Houston, Texas on October 19, 2024 – covered costs included banner, wristbands, facility and equipment fees, and small stipends to cover travel expenses for the family of those incarcerated on death row to attend and participate.
25th Annual Anti-Death Penalty March, Houston Texas October 19, 2024
$5,000
Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
Funding for the 2025 Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty annual conference held in February 2025, with 120 supporters and guests from across Texas in attendance. Visit here for more information.
$8,000
Justice League CIC
Funded expenses of law student interns exploring the possible of exoneration of some people executed in Texas. Work focused on the cases of Les Bower and Richard Jones and led to podcast and print coverage as well as film exploration. Interns also scanned 28 complete case files.
$20,000
Texas Defender Service
Communications campaign activities that included development of a Tik Tok platform. One TikTok for Robert Roberson gained 15,000 views and a TikTok about Ramiro Gonzales’s case earned 35,000 views. Conducted a powerful media campaign for Ramiro Gonzales, provided communications support on Robert Roberson’s case, including giving media interviews, explaining the problems with Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Section 11.073. Added over 15,900 supporters to Texas Defender Service email list. Led the on-the-ground communication campaign about the revelation that Texas’s execution drugs are supplied by a pharmacy that was sanctioned by the Drug Enforcement Administration for problematic practices surrounding opioid prescriptions.
$5,000
Clinton Young Foundation
Fund expenses related to broadcasting coverage of Texas’ scheduled executions. Visit executionwatch.org to find out more information about how to listen to Execution Watch the day of a scheduled execution and to access video and audio recordings.
2023 Grant Awards
$2,926
Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement
Purchased tent, signs and t-shirts for anti-death penalty group to use at their many protest events.
$10,000
Texas After Violence Project
Continue and expand work on Access to Treatment Counseling Project by educating the mental health community about the traumatic impact of the death penalty on family members of persons sentenced to death or executed and making mental health services accessible to those family members. Visit here for more information about the project and watch this outreach video to learn more about available counseling.
$15,000
Texas Defender Service
Funded research, writing and distribution of a report on race and the death penalty in Harris County, Texas: Arbitrary and Capricious Examining Racial Disparities in Harris County’s Pursuit of Death Sentences. Media Coverage includes this Texas Observer article.
$10,000
P.A.C. Community Cares Foundation and Texas Death Penalty Abolition
Host conference on state authorized executions.
$5,000
Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
Funding supporting the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty’s 2024 annual conference held in Fort Worth, Texas providing inspiration and education to over 100 conference attendees from across Texas and other states. Read more about the conference here.
$7,000
Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and End of Isolation Tour
Provided post-production costs of the End of Isolation documentary, which addresses solitary confinement, a common state on Texas Death Row. The Foundation previously funded Texas performances of the underlying End of Isolation Tour. You can read more about the End of Isolation Tour and Documentary here, as well as obtain updates about the documentary.
$18,000
Texas Defender Service
Funded research and writing of the report Unfulfilled Promise which focuses on Texas Junk Science law and the failure of the law to help obtain the release of innocent people.
The report generated wide spread media coverage including in the Texas Tribune, Houston Public Radio and the AP News.
2022 Grant Awards
$5,000
Texas After Violence Project
Working with Descendants of People- Executed in the early 20th Century in Texas to Build a Public Archive of the James W. Marquardt Execution Research Files
$10,000
Texas After Violence Project 2022
Deepening and Sustaining the Reach of Access to Treatment Counseling Project
$5,000
Pulitzer Center and End of Isolation Tour
End of Isolation Tour Production of The Box in Austin, Texas July 2022
$3,000
Texas Death Penalty Education and Resource Center
A Day of Film and Art from Texas‘ Death Row in Austin, Texas Fall 2022
$4,140
Texas Death Penalty Education and Resource Center and Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement Project
Technology, software and web page for development of a People’s Tribunal to expose that the State of Texas is guilty of human rights and constitutional rights violations against incarcerated people on death row
$5,000
Texas Death Penalty Education and Resource Center
Support Rodney Reed family attending oral argument of Supreme Court case, Reed v. Goertz,and participate in media related events.
$13,500
Texas Defender Service
Strategic social-media and communications campaigns to expose the inhumanity of the death penalty—and the hope for reform.
$5,000
Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
2023 Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty annual conference.
2021 Grant Awards
$5,000
Texas After Violence Project
Building a Public Online Archive of the 20th Century Death Penalty
$1,443
Texas Death Penalty Education and Resource Center & Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement Project
Pandemic Abolition Zoom License and T-shirts
$10,000
Texas After Violence Project
Deepening and Sustaining the Reach of Access to Treatment publicizing research on public health impact of the death penalty of the families of people convicted and executed and increasing access to mental health services for those families
$2,466.55
Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement Project & Kids Against the Death Penalty
Say It Loud & Say It Proud by producing t-shirts, totes, buttons, stickers, and other items that can be used/worn/shared on a daily basis to promote and support the movement of Abolishing the Death Penalty
$4,500
Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
2022 Annual Conference
$15,000
Texas Defender Service
Trial Consulting Work
$15,000
Texas Defender Service
Defense Initiated Victim Outreach Project
2020 Grant Awards
$5,000
Texas After Violence Project
Trainings and Multimedia Projects Framing the Death Penalty as an Urgent Health Issue
$5,000
Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
Support of 2020 Annual Conference
$1,800
Texas Death Penalty Education and Resource Center and Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement
Sounding Out the Death Penalty - Audio System
$2,500
Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
Public Opinion Polling in Dallas County
$1,650
Texas Death Penalty Education and Resource Center
Virtual Abolition-Texas Anti-Death Penalty March
$11,000
Picture Social Justice Inc.
“Execution by Numbers” film completion and Texas events
2019 Grant Awards
$7,500
Abolitionist Law Center and Fight Toxic Prisons
Abolition Trainings, Conference and Press Event
$5,000
Texas Observer
Production Life in Carceral State: Stories From the Inside – Live Event
$2,455.49
Texas Death Penalty Education & Resource Center
20th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty
$2,580.30
SHAPE Community Center
Bus trip to 20th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty
$2,008.80
Texas Death Penalty Education & Resource Center and Save Jeff Woods Campaign Project
Anti-Death Penalty Outreach and Advocacy Support
$829.65
Texas Death Penalty Education & Resource Center and Kids Against the Death Penalty
#NotInOurName Project Anti-Death Penalty Outreach and Advocacy Support
$6,000
Texas Death Penalty Education & Resource Center and Reed Justice Initiative
Anti-Death Penalty Outreach and Advocacy Support Related to Scheduled Execution of Rodney Reed
$1,126
SHAPE Community Center and Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement
Multimedia Readiness
2018 Grant Awards
$3,000
Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
Support of 2019 Annual Conference
$17,000
Texas Defender Service
Website update ($12,000) and Travel for Pretrial Consulting and Investigation ($5,000)
$5,000
Texas After Violence Project
Study and Document the Public Health Impacts of the Death Penalty
$5,000
Texas After Violence Project
Screening of the movie “Penalty”
$7,500
Abolitionist Law Center and Fight Toxic Prisons
Abolition Trainings, Conference and Press Event
$5,000
Texas Observer
Production Life in Carceral State: Stories from the Inside – Live Event