Stephanie Wilkinson
Stephanie Wilkinson, the founder of Australians Against Executions, died of cancer in Sydney on March 8. She was 62.
Stephanie — half her friends knew her as Stephanie, the other half as "Jill", a nickname given to go with a brother, Jack — was born in Suffolk, England. Her father was a lieutenant colonel in the British army, and much of Stephanie's childhood was spent in India, Malaya, Malta and Cyprus.
On completing school, Stephanie enrolled at the Slade School of Fine Arts in London, majoring in painting. She later joined the army and served for four years, before marrying Nigel Wilkinson in 1965. They came to Australia with their two children in 1967.
Stephanie worked as a clerical assistant in the library at Grantham High School, Seven Hills, for 24 years before retiring early, having been diagnosed with bone cancer, a secondary cancer from an earlier breast cancer which she thought she had beaten.
Long absolutely opposed to the death penalty, Stephanie was alarmed at the increase in executions during the 1980s after the death penalty had been reinstated in the United States in 1976. In her work with Amnesty International, she became aware of the extreme trauma and despair of the many condemned prisoner, many of whom had ben totally abandoned and were without support.
In 1988, she founded Australians Against Executions so as to be able to offer support and friendship to prisoners, while continuing to lobby actively against the death penalty.
Stephanie worked tirelessly for the prisoners on death row, many times putting their needs before her own. During the Atlantic Olympics, home from hospital for a short time and in a lot of pain, she spent countless hours sitting in her wheelchair writing letters to newspapers all around the world condemning the human rights abuses in Georgia and especially the blatantly racist aspect of the death penalty in the southern states of the US.
Marcus Wellons, an African-american who has spent five years on Georgia's death row, paid tribute to Stephanie in a letter I read to her the night before she died. He said, "You never judged me. You just showed me love, compassion, support, understanding and every attribute associated with friendship."
Stephanie brought love and light and even laughter into one of the darkest places on earth. Her spirit will live on in those of us who have been privileged to have known her.
... Glenys Alderton
[If any readers are willing to take on correspondence with one or more of Stephanie's pen friends in prison, please contact Australians Against Executions, PO Box 640, Milsons Point NSW 2060, phone/fax: (02) 9427 9489.]