Hugo A. Bedau (Ph.D., Harvard, 1961) was a commentator, scholar, and activist for the abolition of capital punishment. He was a prominent spokesperson in the abolitionist movement and well-known for his scholarship and writing concerning the death penalty and the challenge to separate logical arguments from moral arguments.

The Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (ICADP) formed in 1976 as the Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty by Mary Alice Rankin and other activist groups and organizations to try to prevent passage of capital punishment legislation in Illinois. After the state adopted the death penalty in 1977, ICADP expanded its grassroots legislative, education, and communication activities to try to inform the public about flaws and injustices in the Illinois capital punishment system and promote humane alternatives to the death penalty.

James Lawrence Fly papers consist of correspondence, manuscripts, drafts, notes, reports, legal briefs and other documents, books, clippings, and other printed materials dealing with Fly's professional activities and relationships in all three phases of his career. Correspondents include Roger N. Baldwin, Felix Frankfurter, Cordell Hull, Elmer Rice, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Harry Truman.