This is Steve Dear. And this is a call to action.

North Carolina has just begun its seventh year without an execution. During these years, the overall murder rate has declined significantly.

With your involvement it is possible that North Carolina will never go back to the Old South justice that brutalizes our communities.

This summer the Carrboro-based nonprofit People of Faith Against the Death Penalty approached the Chapel Hill Town Council and Carrboro Board of Aldermen with resolutions calling for North Carolina to repeal the death penalty. Before the votes, PFADP held a community forum at St. Joseph C.M.E. Church. Shortly afterward, the towns passed the resolutions unanimously. In Chapel Hill, the audience burst into applause.

It all started with more than three dozen local businesses and congregations passing PFADP’s repeal resolutions, including Balloons and Toons, Mama Dip’s Kitchen, the Episcopal Church of the Advocate, Cliff’s Meat Market and Sandwhich.

Now more than 800 businesses, congregations, and community groups in every one of North Carolina’s counties have passed PFADP’s resolutions.

We can build a grassroots base of support so unprecedented that the death penalty will lose its value for political pandering.

Ask your congregation, your business, and your student group to pass a repeal resolution. Sign PFADP’s petition for repeal. For information visit www.pfadp.org.

We can and will repeal the death penalty.

The seed for that victory has been planted right here in our community.

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