Occupy Atlanta will be participating in a press conference on the State Capital steps tomorrow along with representatives from the NAACP, Amnesty International, Concerned Black Clergy, Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, the Southern Center for Human Rights, the Voter Empowerment Collective, the Jail and Prison Ministries for the Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta, Power of Faith Deliverance, the Interdenominational Theological Center at Morehouse, and State Senator Vincent Fort.
At 11:30 am on Thursday, December 8 we will gather on the steps of the Georgia State Capitol Building to discuss plans to end the death penalty in Georgia.
Occupy Atlanta’s concerns with wealth disparity and economic injustice have a direct bearing on the issue of the death penalty in the state of Georgia and in the United States as a whole. In exactly the same way that the richest one percent of our population dominate the political system, they also dominate the justice system, even when facing trial. If you are poor, you are more likely to be arrested and charged for any crime, and also more likely to be convicted, than if you are middle-class or wealthy. If you are convicted of murder in the United States, the realities of class bias and of overworked public defenders with inadequate resources mean that you are far, far more likely to be given a death sentence if you are poor than if you are rich. Justice that is not applied fairly to everyone is not justice at all.
