Please join CDPL on Tuesday, Sept. 26 to honor some of the most talented and steadfast people in our fight against the death penalty. We will celebrate the contributions of two extraordinary capital defense attorneys, Marilyn Ozer and the late Bill Massengale, the 2023 winners of the Osborn Award. We will also honor Patricia Carrington for her many years of service at Central Prison’s Visitation Department. Officer Carrington will receive the Messenger of Light Award. Read about our award winners here.
We will also have a very special guest, best-selling novelist and lawyer, John Grisham!
The event will be from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at Durham’s Parizade. Wine, heavy hors d’oeuvres, and dessert will be served. Other drinks are available for purchase.
Please consider sponsoring our event this year. In addition to supporting our work, your gift permits CDPL to offer discounted tickets to guests who might not otherwise be able to attend – exonerees, people who’ve recently come home after time in prison, family members of our awardees, and newer members of our community. Please choose one of these sponsorship levels:
Benefactor — $2,000 (includes 5 tickets)
Champion — $1,000 (includes 4 tickets)
Defender — $500 (includes 3 tickets)
Advocate — $250 (includes 2 tickets)
Sponsors at the Benefactor, Champion, and Defender levels will have an opportunity to meet personally with John Grisham and our awardees and even take photos!
Please note: To avoid excessive fees, we have chosen not to allow credit card payments through the registration site. If you’d like to pay by credit card, please register first and then go to our Donate page to make your payment.
Meet Our Special Guest: John Grisham
John Grisham is the author of forty-seven bestselling books, which have been translated into nearly fifty languages. His recent books include The Judge’s List, Sooley, and his third Jake Brigance novel, A Time for Mercy, which is being developed by HBO as a limited series.
Grisham is a two-time winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and was honored with the Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction.
When he’s not writing, Grisham serves on the board of directors of the Innocence Project and of Centurion Ministries, two national organizations dedicated to exonerating those who have been wrongfully convicted. Much of his fiction explores deep-seated problems in our criminal justice system.
John lives on a farm in central Virginia.