wfn.org | Bishop Wilson urges Bush: Stop executions

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Feb. 10, 2000  News media contact: Tim Tanton·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.
10-21-71B{059}

By Paul McKay*    
DALLAS (UMNS) -- Opposing capital punishment in the Lone Star State is seen
as a contrary opinion. But it's a position that United Methodist Bishop Joe
A. Wilson of the Fort Worth Area staked out long before he sent a letter
last month to Texas Gov. George W. Bush, a United Methodist, pleading for a
moratorium on capital punishment.
"I continue to be dismayed by the number of executions being performed in
the state of Texas," Wilson wrote to Bush in the letter dated Jan. 7. "As a
United Methodist, I hope you will consider seriously the stand of your
church on the death penalty. Since 1972, the United Methodist Church has
been opposed to capital punishment and has urged its elimination from all
criminal codes (United Methodist Book of Resolutions).
"My intent, as an episcopal leader of your church, is to appeal to your
sense of fair justice and Christian conscience. The General Conference
delegates, representing over 8 million members, author the content of the
Book of Resolutions. This bold statement is not a minority voice. I believe
it is the voice of the future church and society."
With that, Wilson urged the governor to "please put a moratorium on the
executions in the state of Texas. Something much more is at stake than
political positioning. Human life, which only God has created and has the
right to end, is the primary issue. I believe that the use of the death
penalty by the state will increase the acceptance of revenge in our society
and will give official sanction to a climate of violence."
The bishop told The United Methodist Reporter that he has received no
response from Bush, noting that he didn't necessarily expect an answer
considering that the governor is busy campaigning for the highest office in
the nation.
"I'm not trying to defeat him in the election," Wilson said. He noted that
he and other clergy in the Fort Worth area made a public stand against the
death penalty in Texas two years ago, after Bush refused to call off the
execution of Karla Faye Tucker.

Tucker never denied she was guilty of a grisly, 1983 double murder in
Houston in which the two victims were hacked to death with a pick ax. But
Tucker, a former drug addict, did claim to be a born-again, evangelical
Christian. Her last words, according to those who witnessed the execution,
were: "I am so sorry; I hope God gives you all peace through this."
"Karla Faye Tucker put a face on the death penalty," Wilson said.
He said his opposition to capital punishment has grown stronger since Tucker
was executed on Feb. 3, 1998.
Texas has executed almost 200 inmates since capital punishment was
reinstated in 1977. The state of Virginia ranks a distant No. 2 in
executions, with 47 carried out since 1977.
Illinois has put 12 inmates to death since the reinstatement, but 13 inmates
have been freed from the Illinois death row after proving their innocence or
producing strong new evidence in their defense. Because of that significant
number of wrongful prosecutions in Illinois, Gov. George Ryan took the
unprecedented step Jan. 31 of putting all executions on hold pending a
review of the death-penalty system, which he said is "fraught with error."
Wilson maintains that any way one looks at it, the death-penalty system is
wrong.
'Value the gift of life'
"I'm getting older, and I guess the closer you come to the end of life, the
more you value the gift of life," Wilson told The Reporter. "I have grown to
appreciate the nonviolent attitudes of Jesus, and his willingness to not
stone a person in a world fraught with contingencies. ... I believe life is
sacred, created as a gift of God, and I cannot justify my right to take a
life God has given - and destroy that which God has made."
The bishop noted that a new life in Christ is always possible, even for the
most hard-core criminal.
"It is wrong for me to destroy the future in which rehabilitation and
conversion might occur," he said. "Because violent crimes often occur under
the influence of drugs, alcohol or retardation, I do not believe these
conditions should dictate the loss of life."
Sentiment is mounting in Texas for more emphasis on drug and alcohol
rehabilitation - and more services for those who are abused or mentally
impaired - as a way of averting more violent crime.
An editorial in the Dallas Morning News, for example, questioned the recent
execution of Glen McGinnis, who was 17 when he robbed and killed a
Houston-area laundry clerk.
"No one is suggesting that Mr. McGinnis is innocent," the editorial said on
the eve of the execution. "In fact, no one is suggesting he is
rehabilitated. They are just saying that no one should die for sins
committed in youth."
The editorial noted that as a child, McGinnis had repeatedly run away from
home and was constantly handled by the state's Child Protective Services
after episodes in which his stepfather allegedly raped him; his prostitute
mother and stepfather burned him with hot grease; and his stepfather beat
him with a baseball bat.
State must ensure fairness
"If Texas is to maintain a death penalty," the editorial said, "then the
state must ensure that it is administered fairly. It is not a mark of pride
for the state that it has a less humane standard of justice than almost all
the rest of the civilized world."
Wilson said Texans might slowly but surely come to the realization that
executions do not deter violent crime, and that intervention services for
alcoholics, drug addicts and mentally impaired people are lacking even as
the state's expanded prisons are filling up.
"The attitude in Texas is 'kill 'em,'" the bishop said. "That attitude is
hard to overcome."
# # #

*McKay is associate editor of the United Methodist Reporter.

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United Methodist News Service
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