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USA: DEATH PENALTY ABOLITIONISTS FASTING AT SUPREME COURT
July 3, 2019: As Death Penalty Use Declines, Highly Visible Anti-Death Penalty Activists from AAC (Abolitionist Action Committee) Continue Four Day Fast and Vigil at U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, DC. Survivors of wrongful conviction who faced execution, murder victim family members, and family members of those currently on death row are among dozens of death penalty abolitionists from across the United States and beyond who today enter the 3rd of the 4 day 26th Annual Fast & Vigil to Abolish the Death Penalty on the sidewalk in front of the US Supreme Court. Wearing t-shirts, holding signs and sharing information with tourists, students and other passers-by, abolitionists are gathering signatures on petitions to stop upcoming executions in Florida, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas and Sri Lanka. June 29, 2019 marks the 47th anniversary of the 1972 Furman v. Georgia decision in which the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated all death penalty laws in the US, finding capital punishment to be “arbitrary and capricious.” July 2nd marks the 43rd anniversary of the 1976 Gregg decision, which upheld new state death penalty laws and allowed the resumption of executions. This is the 26th consecutive year that the Abolitionist Action Committee is holding its annual Fast and Vigil between the dates of these 2 landmark decisions. (Source: AAC, 01/07/2019)
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