Strong, organised people-powered action, not government initiatives, are the reason for the drop in countries using the death penalty. Joel MacKay reports.
death penalty
Brandon Astor Jones, a 72-year-old African American prisoner on death row in Georgia, was executed by lethal injection on February 3.
The oldest death row inmate in Georgia, Jones had spent decades in jail. He was convicted over the killing of a convenience store manager in an robbery in 1979. Van Roosevelt Solomon, who took part in the robbery and was also convicted of murder, as executed in 1985.
Saudi Arabia, a member of the UN's Human Rights Council and a close US ally, is hiring more executioners, according to its Ministry of Civil Service website.
FRANCE BANS GROCERS FROM THROWING OUT LEFTOVER FOOD
French supermarkets will be banned from throwing away or destroying unsold food and must instead donate it to charities or for animal feed, under a law passed unanimously by the French National Assembly to crack down on food waste.
Vigils were held in Melbourne and Sydney for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran on January 29. The two are facing the death penalty after having been convicted of drug smuggling in Indonesia.
Chris Peterson gave this speech to the Melbourne vigil.
***
I would like to thank everyone who came out on this cold windy night. We are continuing a movement. We no longer have the death penalty in Australia because people came out on cold evenings for justice.