Lighting Candles

After placing roses in a vase to commemorate their losses (see yesterday's post), participants in the "Prevention, Not Execution" remembrance ceremony lit candles both to honor their losses and to express hope for the future.


Here, Billie Jean Mayberry and Bonnie Skawski light a candle for their brother Robert Coe, who suffered from mental illness and was executed in Tennessee.






And here, Art Laffin, from Washington, DC, lights a candle for his brother Paul Laffin. Art said that Paul, who had worked as associate director of Mercy Housing and Shelter in Hartford, Connecticut, "was murdered by one of the men who frequented the shelter, Dennis Soutar, who suffered from mental illness and fell through the cracks of our system."

With Art in the photo are Nick and Amanda Wilcox (see their press statement).

Photos are by Scott Langley.