Events Around US in Protest of the Death Penalty

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 1, 2007

Law Students and Activists Hold Events Around the Country in Protest of the Death Penalty

Law students across the country are speaking out in opposition to the death penalty on March 1, 2007 as part of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) Student Day Against the Death Penalty. Participating law school campuses are organizing panel discussions, debates, film screenings, and other events. The national call for abolition takes place a mere two days after Donald Miller became the nation’s 1064th person to lose their life to capital punishment.

Míchel Martinez, NLG National Student Organizer, says, “Despite a documented shift in public opinion away from the death penalty, the federal government and many states have continued to use the capital punishment. America is becoming more and more aware of social, racial, and economic biases in the application of the death penalty, and innocence projects, documentaries, and demonstrations like ours make even more information available to the public.” The NLG calls for the immediate abolition of the death penalty.

Student chapters of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) are highlighting the cruel and unusual nature of the death penalty in what is proving to be an extraordinary year in death penalty related news. Capital punishment has fallen under strict scrutiny recently as a number of executions have gone awry, and more persons are being exonerated, all of which raises public awareness of a flawed justice system.

The National Lawyers Guild, an organization of attorneys, law students, legal workers and jailhouse lawyers, is part of the growing national and international movement opposing the death penalty in the United States. Founded in 1937 as the first racially integrated bar organization, the NLG today comprises over 200 chapters and committees using the law in the service of the people.

###

ENDS

© Scoop Media