wfn.org | Agencies sign brief opposing execution of mentally disabled

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

June 21, 2001      News media contact: Joretta Purdue ·(202)
546-8722·Washington    10-21-71B{286}

WASHINGTON (UMNS) - Two agencies of the United Methodist Church have joined
other religious organizations in filing a document with the U.S. Supreme
Court opposing the death penalty for mentally disabled people.

The boards of Church and Society, based in Washington, and Global
Ministries, based in New York, have filed an "amicus" - or friend of the
court - brief in the case of Ernest Paul McCarver v. State of North
Carolina. The court is expected to hear the case after it returns from
recess Oct. 1.

Arguments in the brief focus on whether the execution of a mentally retarded
man would violate constitutional prohibitions of cruel and unusual
punishment.

In the 1989 case Penry v. Lynaugh, a sharply divided Supreme Court ruled
that executing convicted mentally retarded individuals did not violate the
Eighth and 14th Amendments. At that time, only Georgia and the federal
government prohibited the execution of mentally disabled people. 

In the intervening years, 12 additional states have enacted such
legislation. They are Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky,
Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, South Dakota, Tennessee, Washington and,
very recently, Maryland. In addition, 12 states and the District of Columbia
prohibit the death penalty for everyone.

The court will hear arguments in the case of McCarver v. North Carolina this
fall.

The two United Methodist agencies joined the case on the side of McCarver
because it involves both the death penalty, which the church has opposed for
decades, and mental disability. In the church's Social Principles, the
denomination's General Conference says, "We oppose capital punishment and
urge its elimination from all criminal codes." The church also has a
resolution that opposes abusive treatment of people with mental
disabilities.

The organizations that co-signed the brief are not of like mind regarding
the death penalty in general. Despite their differing views, their brief
states that they "share a conviction that the execution of persons with
mental retardation cannot be morally justified. In our view, based on our
vision of how a just society should act, such an execution violates the
standards of decency of American society and the Eighth Amendment guarantee
against cruel and unusual punishment." 

Besides the United Methodist groups, representatives of a dozen other
organizations co-signed the brief, including three Jewish groups; the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; the United Church of Christ; the
Presbyterian Church; the Unitarian Universalist Association and the United
States Catholic Conference

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United Methodist News Service
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