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MEDIA ADVISORY                                                                                                                         CONTACT:FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                  SCOTTLANGLEY 16 January 2012                                                                                                      518-249-8094 (mobile)         

Civil Disobedience Planned to Mark 35th Anniversaryof Executions
At U.S. SupremeCourt in Washington, DC

9:45am Wednesday – Press briefing at the United Methodist Building, Location: 100Maryland Avenue, NE (next to U.S. Supreme Court)
WASHINGTON -- Thirty-five years after the execution of GaryGilmore, the first execution under contemporary laws, members of theAbolitionist Action Committee will stage a highly visual demonstration at theU.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, January 17. 
Participants from Texas, South Carolina, Virginia, DC, Utah,Kansas and New York will peacefully and visibly call for an immediate cessationof all executions in the United States through civil disobedience and the riskof arrest. 
One of the participants will be Randy Gardner, whosebrother, like Gilmore, was executed in Utah by firing squad.  "My Brother Ronnie Lee Gardner wasexecuted June 18th 2010 by the same state, by the same method as Gilmore. I believed then, and I still believe now, that the death penalty is morallywrong.  I'm here to help abolish thedeath penalty by protesting in any shape or form." 

Thirty years ago, on January 17, 1977, the State of Utahshot to death Gary Gilmore, who "volunteered" to be killed in revengefor his murder of Ben Bushnell and Max Jenson. This state-assisted suicide was the first execution under the SupremeCourt’s upholding of the death penalty in 1976.
Since 1997, a total of 34 arrests have been made of deathpenalty abolitionists for unfurling banners that read "STOPEXECUTIONS!" on the stairs leading to the front doors of the U.S. SupremeCourt.  January 17th, 2017 will be the nextinstallment of the every-five-year action. 
To date there have been 1278 executions in the U.S. since1977, with others consecutively scheduled on January 18, 19 and 20 in Ohio,Kentucky and Delaware, respectively. Texas has seven executions scheduled this winter.
Despite the continued use of the death penalty, the tide isturning.  “A year ago we saw Illinoisrepeal their death penalty. The year before that it was New Mexico. Beforethat, New Jersey and New York.  We areseeing a dramatic decrease in both death sentences and executions nationwide,and we are winning.  Now is the time toend this practice once and for all,” said Scott Langley, Abolitionist ActionCommittee organizer for the January 17th action.
The Abolitionist Action Committee is an ad-hoc group ofindividuals committed to highly visible and effective public education foralternatives to the death penalty through nonviolent direct action.

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