Ruth Lowe’s brother, Charles Clarence Brooks, was murdered. And she thinks about it frequently.

“I think about what a good man he was and what an awful way he died. And I think about his murderer, too. He was a young man. He didn’t seem to understand the value of my brother’s life. I hated him for a long time. I wished for him the worst possible life.”

Lowe relates this personal story at a slow, even tempo with a quiet conviction. She’s seated in a green resin chair on a small, neat lawn with a gray vinyl-sided home in the background. Birds chirp incessantly, but they’re not distracting.

She’s being recorded by a small, digital, point-and-shoot camera. And the photographer is a member of the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (KCADP). The video is a part of the organization’s campaign to put “the death penalty on trial” and to call “Kentuckians as witnesses,” as Father Patrick Delahanty puts it.

In the video, Lowe goes on to say, “I’m learning to forgive.” The execution of her brother’s murderer “would do nothing for me. It would do nothing for the rest of my family. ... To take his life would make no sense.”

Lowe’s video is one of more than 30 now available for viewing on KCADP’s YouTube channel. They can be found by going to the coalition’s Web site — kcadp.org — or by searching www.youtube.com for KCADP videos. The “channel” was created with the help of KCADP volunteer Zach Everson, who also has started a Facebook fan club, Twitter account and updated the group’s Web site.

Father Delahanty, chair of the KCADP board of directors, recorded most of the videos himself.

As witnesses in this trial of sorts, KCADP records the general public, people who have relatives on death row and people who have had a family member murdered. Most videos are short, one or two minutes. The subjects may tell a story about their experiences with capital punishment or simply state their reasons for opposing the practice.

The video that’s drawn the most hits also was the first recorded. It features Wendell Berry, Kentucky farmer and acclaimed writer. Berry narrates as photos of death row inmates appear on the screen.

“We are putting the death penalty on trial. Our witnesses are Kentuckians,” said Father Delahanty, who is also sacramental moderator of St. Augustine Church in Louisville and associate director of the Catholic Conference of Kentucky, the public policy arm of Kentucky’s bishops. “Every one of these stories is different.

“This could be useful for people doing RCIA (to teach) forgiveness and mercy,” he said. “I could see it used in any kind of setting — high schools. I can see really creative teachers doing good things with this.”

Father Delahanty said he’d like to have at least 100 videos.

“It would be an incredible wealth of testimony,” he noted. “I’m looking for anyone who would make a brief statement to convince people we have a broken system here. It’s not about anybody ‘getting off’ or ‘being soft on crime.’ We all believe people who have killed need to be severely punished. But not by killing them. This is our behavior.”

The video campaign is just a small part of the coalition’s larger plan to “ramp-up” its efforts to bring an end to capital punishment in Kentucky. And the coalition “has adopted a strategic plan to do just that,” said Donald Vish, the coalition’s director of education and advocacy.

Vish, an attorney who practiced non-profit, corporate law for 37 years, came on board with the coalition in January as its only full-time staff person. His position was made possible by a capital campaign to raise $245,000 to support the coalition’s efforts. The three-year campaign began in April 2008, and about two-thirds of the funds have been raised, said Father Delahanty.

Vish said the coalition has identified four goals in the strategic plan.

The first is to identify what has worked in other states that have abolished the death penalty and what strategies are likely to work in Kentucky. As part of that goal, a new public opinion poll regarding the use of capital punishment is being planned.

The second goal relates to finances and organizing — building financial resources through the capital campaign and building volunteer support.

The third goal aims to create and implement an education program “to influence public opinion where we can,” said Vish. “To counter myths that surround the use of the death penalty.”

The video campaign falls under this goal, as does a plan to set up tables at fairs and festivals where volunteers hand out brochures and postcards for people to send to their legislators.

The final goal aims to create a “statewide organizational structure,” said Vish. He said the coalition wants to recruit students on college campuses, representatives in faith communities and voters around the state who could talk intelligently about the issue and participate in postcard campaigns targeting legislators.

“We would have people in Paducah and Pikeville and Covington and Hopkinsville that we could rely on,” said Vish.

“We are not approaching these four goals leisurely or lightly,” he said. “This is serious business. We have law students engaged at two campuses” who are conducting research and developing amicus (friends of the court) briefs.”

The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty will be holding its annual meeting this January in Louisville. Individuals may visit the KCADP Web site for more information and to view videos.