Anthony Graves

Lars

Lars Åke Augustsson is 60 years of age, and a writer and reporter by profession. He met Anthony Graves for the first time in 1999. He has written a book on the death penalty in the U.S.A. that was published as Nära döden (“Close to Death) in Sweden in 2003. In 2004 he took the initiative to start the Swedish support group for Anthony Graves, Anthony Graves Vänner (“The friends of Anthony Graves”). He travels regularly to the U.S. and is currently, together with his son David, who is a part-time writer and also a friend of Anthony Graves, working on a travel book on Texas.

Dave

David Atwood lives in Houston, Texas, and is founder of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. He has written a book about his experiences titled "Detour to Death Row". In this book, Dave describes the many imperfections in the Texas criminal justice system that has resulted in several innocent people being sent to death row. Dave believes Anthony Graves is one of these innocent people.

Nick

Nick Bell is 59 years of age. He is an English teacher and translator by profession, working at a university of applied sciences in Switzerland. He started writing to Anthony Graves in 1995 and met him in 1998. He has been a member of Amnesty International since he was 15 and is working towards ‘a world that works for everyone, with no one and nothing left out’. His current project, ‘lifecoachpals’, promotes co-coaching between death row prisoners and their penfriends. Its aim is to show that death row prisoners can make an important contribution to society.

Marina

Marina Vorländer was born in Germany in 1958. She is a certified relaxation and stress recovery trainer and is in training to become a mediation and relaxation therapist. She first got in contact with Anthony during a Christmas-letter campaign by Amnesty International in November 2000.

Since then she's been a supporter and friend of Anthony Graves. Their first meeting took place in 2002 while Anthony was on death row. She's been a member of Amnesty International since 2001. In 2004, Marina founded a non-profit organization called "Great Charity Action" to protect human rights and to support Anthony and other people in need. The organization adverts to injustice with social and cultural events, organises different campaigns and appeals for financial support. The GCA is a membership corporation and therefore able to issue contribution receipts.

Anna

Anna Sperber was born 1982 and works as a marketing manager in south Germany , she started writing Anthony in 2007 and setup his homepage and facebook profile & group with her girlfriend Manja. She will meet Anthony for the first time during his new trial in 2011. She has been an Amnesty International member since 2006 and a member of the German Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty since 2008.

Isabelle