USA: 30 years of executions, 30 years of wrongs
Today, January 17, 2007 marks the 30th anniversary of the execution of Gary Gilmore in Utah, the first to take place after the 1976 U.S. Supreme Court decision Gregg v. Georgia allowed for the resumption of executions. Since that time, more than 1,050 executions have taken place in the United States.
Even as we pause to reflect on 30 years of state-sanctioned killing, executions continue unabated in states such as Texas, North Carolina, and Oklahoma. At the same time, executions are on hold in at least 10 states, due to challenges to lethal injection protocols and other concerns about this fatally flawed system.
Please read Amnesty International's statement http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?ID=M7228860510612138239755465 on this somber occasion and an accompanying review of 30 years of executions http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?ID=M7228720810612138239755465 .
Also, please take action to stop the pending execution of Ronald Chambers in Texas, scheduled for January 25.
http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?ID=M7228719110612138239755465
Mr. Chambers has spent the past 31 years in prison, nearly all of it on death row. To quote Supreme Court Justice Breyer, "It is fairly asked whether such punishment is both unusual and cruel."
The time has come for society to recognize that our 30 year-experiment with the death penalty has failed. We must end the death penalty once and for all.
Thank you for your support and commitment to this issue.
In Solidarity,
AIUSA's Program to Abolish the Death Penalty
Even as we pause to reflect on 30 years of state-sanctioned killing, executions continue unabated in states such as Texas, North Carolina, and Oklahoma. At the same time, executions are on hold in at least 10 states, due to challenges to lethal injection protocols and other concerns about this fatally flawed system.
Please read Amnesty International's statement http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?ID=M7228860510612138239755465 on this somber occasion and an accompanying review of 30 years of executions http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?ID=M7228720810612138239755465 .
Also, please take action to stop the pending execution of Ronald Chambers in Texas, scheduled for January 25.
http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?ID=M7228719110612138239755465
Mr. Chambers has spent the past 31 years in prison, nearly all of it on death row. To quote Supreme Court Justice Breyer, "It is fairly asked whether such punishment is both unusual and cruel."
The time has come for society to recognize that our 30 year-experiment with the death penalty has failed. We must end the death penalty once and for all.
Thank you for your support and commitment to this issue.
In Solidarity,
AIUSA's Program to Abolish the Death Penalty
rudkla - 18. Jan, 14:48
