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MEDIA ADVISORY FROM

FLORIDIANS FOR ALTERNATIVES TO THE DEATH PENALTY (FADP.org)

26 June 2001
Contact: Abe Bonowitz - 800-973-6548

FLORIDIANS TO PARTICIPATE IN HISTORIC NATIONAL ANTI-DEATH PENALTY EVENT

"The Blood Is On All Our Hands: Protesting 25 Years of Executions"

    WHO: Rev. Clay Grimsley, Abe Bonowitz, Carolyn Gray, and Palm Beach Community Leaders
    WHAT: PRESS CONFERENCE (Visual/photo op!)
    WHERE: Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial at CURRIE PARK in West Palm Beach
    WHEN: TODAY, Tuesday, June 26, at 10am
    WHY: FLORIDA ACTIVISTS TRAVEL TO HISTORIC NATIONAL PROTEST
Florida activists, including Palm Beach County residents Rev. Clay Grimsley, Abe Bonowitz and Carolyn Gray, will travel to Washington DC this week to participate in the "Starvin' For Justice," the 8th Annual Fast and Vigil to Abolish the Death Penalty, an event held in front of the U.S. Supreme Court each year. They will be joined at a press conference today by Palm Beach County community leaders as they discuss the purpose of this annual Fast and Vigil and invite Floridians to join in this conscious raising event.

Death penalty abolitionists from across the nation, and from other countries, join together each year for this event to maintain a four-day presence in front of the Court. Their purpose is to educate the public why the death penalty is fatally flawed, and about the alternatives.

"We are standing up against the culture of violence and asking our nation to adopt alternatives to the death penalty," said Rev. Clay Grimsley, a minister at the Anointed Fellowship of West Palm Beach. "As Florida is about to release yet another wrongly convicted man from death row, we ask everyone to give pause, and to reflect on the questions: "Do we really want to trust our government with the power to kill citizens?" and "After 25 years, do we really need the death penalty when alternatives exist?"

The Fast and Vigil begins at 12:00 AM on Friday, June 29, the anniversary of Furman v.Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court's 1972 decision which found the death penalty to be unconstitutional in practice, forcing all states to rewrite their death penalty laws. The Fast and Vigil ends at midnight on July 2, which this year is the 25th anniversary of Gregg v. Georgia, the 1976 decision which allowed the resumption of executions in the U.S.

Grimsley, Bonowitz and Gray will be joined in Washington, DC by several other Floridians:

Gainesville resident Lisa Duford Hallendale Resident SueZann Bosler Miami Resident Paolo Tuzzi

Interviews with the above named individuals, both in advance and live from the steps of the US Supreme Court, may be arranged by calling 561-371-5204.

For more information about this historic event, please visit
http://www.abolition.org

SENT BY:

    Abraham J. Bonowitz
    Director

    Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP)
    800-973-6548
    fadp@fadp.org
    www.fadp.org
    PMB 335, 2603 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Hwy,
    Gainesville, FL 32609

Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty works for restorative justice in the form of effective alternatives to the death penalty. It does so by

    # supporting and coordinating the work of organizations and individuals
    # educating and energizing the general public and state legislators
    # supporting the many persons affected by capital crime and punishment
    # advocating specific legislative improvements


abolitionist, stop capital punishment, abolish the death penalty, Alternatives to the death penalty