World Day Against the Death Penalty Vigil Love Park

When:
October 10, 2012 @ 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Where:
LOVE Park
Categories:

On Wednesday October 10, 2012 at 6:30-7:30PM in Love Park (JFK Plaza), Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (PADP) and the Ethical Humanist Society of Philadelphia (EHSoP) invite everyone to a candlelight vigil for the 10th annual World Day Against the Death Penalty. There will music, poetry, speeches and a reading of names of people executed in Pennsylvania. Confirmed participants include: published poet Aja Beech, coordinator of PADP, Philadelphia Chapter, and Hugh Taft-Morales, Leader of EHSoP. Amnesty International-Philadelphia Chapter has endorsed the event.

With the pending execution (as of this writing) of Terrance Williams, now is the time to tell Governor Tom Corbett that Pennsylvanians condemn the death penalty. The Governor has signed two death warrants in the past two months and it does not look as if he will stop there. Organizers repeat the words of Gandhi: “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” Hugh Taft-Morales puts it more directly: “The death penalty is expensive, ineffective as a deterrent, flawed, racially biased, arbitrary, and cruel. As a civilized nation, we can do better.”

The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty (WCADP) brings together 126 NGOs, bar associations, trade unions and public bodies that actively support abolition of the death penalty. According to WCADP, there has been progress: “According to Amnesty International, 21 countries recorded executions in 2011, compared to 31 countries 10 years ago. Even the USA, one of the worst offenders in the use of the death penalty, has shown progress as individual states have abolished or limited the death penalty.”

WCADP urges everyone to promote: 1) national legislation abolishing the death penalty; 2) ratification of the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR aiming to abolish the death penalty; 3) international standards calling for the abolition or restricted use of the death penalty; and, 4) adoption of the 2012 UN General Assembly Resolution for a moratorium.

Come gather in Love Park with other opponents of the death penalty at 6:30PM on October 10!

CONTACT:

Aja Beech, Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty , 215-609-5559 , PhillyPADP@gmail.com

Hugh Taft-Morales, Ethical Humanist Society of Philadelphia, 301-580-1481 , LeaderHugh@phillyethics.org

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