| 3,500 Faith Leaders Call GA Execution Morally Unacceptable |
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| 2011 | |
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MEDIA RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 15, 2011 CONTACT: Stephen Dear, sdear (at) pfadp (dot) org, (919) 622-1739 Georgia Execution Morally Unacceptable Says Unprecedented Number of U.S. Religious Leaders ATLANTA – Religious leaders delivered a letter to the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles today signed by 3,500 leaders of faith communities in the United States and beyond calling for clemency for Georgia death row prisoner Troy Davis. At a press conference outside the parole board's offices today People of Faith Against the Death Penalty, which circulated the letter along with other groups, announced that several times more faith leaders have signed the letter for clemency for Davis than any other such letter in modern American history – if not ever. PFADP Executive Director Stephen Dear made the following statement prior to delivering the letter: "My name is Stephen Dear and I am executive director of People of Faith Against the Death Penalty, a national nonprofit organization based in North Carolina that works to educate and mobilize faith communities to act to abolish the death penalty in the United States. I am grateful to be joined today by leaders of some of Atlanta's faith communities and all those gathered here. "Today we are delivering a letter calling for clemency for Troy Davis from the leaders of faith communities across Georgia and from every single state in the nation and beyond, leaders from every major faith tradition, religious leaders who support the death penalty and those who oppose it all speaking with one voice: allowing the execution of Troy Davis would be both unnecessary and unconscionable. "Nearly 3,500 faith leaders have signed the letter. That is several times more faith leaders than have signed any other such letter for clemency in modern American history – if not in all of history. More than 1,000 religious leaders from the South have endorsed clemency for Davis, including about 250 pastors in Georgia, some of them Southern Baptist pastors. "The Troy Davis case is so fraught with doubt that it fails to meet any standard of acceptability held by any religious organization we are aware of, including the standard of clear and convincing guilt established by the Southern Baptist Convention in 2000. These faith leaders from across the religious and political spectrum are saying there is no morally acceptable position supporting the execution of Troy Davis. "Thanks to the egregious problems with Troy Davis's case this letter represents a new level of engagement from America's faith community on what is happening in our courts and death chambers. "We hold the family of Officer Mark MacPhail in our prayers and we hold each of the parole board's members in our prayers as they fulfill their duty to review this case. We respectfully urge the parole board to grant clemency to Mr. Davis." Davis is scheduled for execution on September 21, 2011. The Georgia parole board will hold its hearing on his petition for clemency on Monday. People of Faith Against the Death Penalty is a national nonprofit organization based in North Carolina. www.pfadp.org ###
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