wfn.org | Close Up: The death penalty - what would Jesus do?

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April 1, 2003 News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615) 742-54707Nashville, Tenn.
10-21-31-71BPI{189}

NOTE: "Close Up" is a regular UMNS and UMC.org feature on current issues.
Photographs, a map and four sidebars, UMNS stories #190-193, are available.

A UMNS Report
By Tom McAnally*

Capital punishment, legalized killing by the state, has always been a deeply
troublesome issue for religious and non-religious people alike.  

Debate on the issue has intensified in recent years, particularly in the
United States, where an unprecedented number of people have been executed.
Most church groups officially oppose capital punishment, but individual
support has increased following such horrendous events as the 1995 Oklahoma
City bombing, high-profile child abduction cases, the terrorist attacks of
Sept. 11, 2001, and last fall's chain of sniper killings in the Washington,
Maryland and Virginia area.

Well-meaning people of faith weigh in on both sides of the debate. Some argue
the death penalty deters crime and protects society. Others contend that it
has not proven to be a deterrence, is biased against the poor and African
Americans, and isn't something Jesus would "do." The death penalty is
currently legal in 38 U.S. states.

The United Methodist Church, in its Social Principles, officially opposes
capital punishment and urges its elimination from all criminal codes. The
church's General Conference, a delegated body representing members around the
world, meets every four years and is the only entity that can take official
positions for the denomination. Those statements are included in the church's
Book of Discipline and Book of Resolutions. On many issues addressed by the
church, individual members hold a wide range of viewpoints, including
outright opposition to denomination policy.  

'I must act'

The late Harry Blackmun, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and an
active United Methodist, is most widely known for authoring Roe v. Wade, the
controversial decision that 30 years ago legalized abortion in the United
States. He also held strong convictions about the death penalty. In a
dissenting opinion for the Callins v. Collins case Feb. 22, 1994, related to
the pending execution of Bruce Edwin Callins by the state of Texas, Blackmun
declared, "From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery
of death."

Nearly a decade later, another United Methodist, Illinois Gov. George Ryan,
referred to that statement from Blackmun as he announced Jan. 11 his decision
to commute all Illinois death sentences to prison terms of life or less, the
largest such emptying of death row in history.

In the Callins decision, Blackmun wrote, " ... (The) inevitability of
factual, legal and moral error gives us a system that we now must wrongly
kill some defendants, a system that fails to deliver the fair, consistent and
reliable sentences of death required by the Constitution." Blackmun, named to
the Supreme Court in 1970 by President Richard Nixon, also served as a board
member for the United Methodist Publishing House.
 
Ryan, a Republican, announced his controversial decision to commute the
sentences of all death row inmates just 48 hours before the end of his term
as governor and one day after he took the extraordinary step of pardoning
four condemned men outright. 

He made his announcement at the Northwestern University School of Law in
Evanston, Ill. Since the death penalty was reinstated in Illinois in 1977, 13
men have been exonerated and released from death row, a 4.9 percent rate that
stands as the highest percentage of exonerations in the nation. Staff members
of the school's Center on Wrongful Convictions have been involved in nine of
those 13 exonerations. 

Referring to the state's capital punishment system, Ryan said, "The
legislature couldn't reform it, lawmakers won't repeal it, but I will not
stand for it. ... I must act."

United Methodist News Service tried unsuccessfully to reach Ryan. However,
Dave Urbanek, former director of communications for the governor, said that
Ryan had shared in previous interviews his struggle with the death penalty
issue and how he and his wife had frequently prayed about it.  

"He did consult his pastor and other religious leaders," Urbanek said.
"Earlier, he was pro-death penalty, but the facts of the death penalty in
Illinois rattled his confidence in its fair administration. That is what set
him on this course."  

The governor and his wife kept their membership in Asbury United Methodist
Church in Kankakee, Ill., when they moved to the capital city of Springfield,
according to Paul Black, assistant to Bishop Sharon Brown Christopher, leader
of the Illinois Great Rivers Annual Conference. In Springfield, the Ryans
attended First United Methodist Church. 

Ryan is now seen as the nation's leading proponent of changing capital
punishment, though his successor, Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich, was quoted
as saying the blanket clemency was a "big mistake." While friends and family
members of the death row inmates rejoiced, the family of victims expressed
anger, shock and disbelief.

"He just pushed us off to the side," Katy Salhani told the Los Angeles Times.
Salhani had brought Ryan 3,500 letters from friends and neighbors, all
pleading to keep her sister's killers on death row. "I want justice, not in a
vindictive way, but I want them to be put to death," she said.

J. Taylor Phillips, a state court judge from Macon, Ga., who is widely known
in United Methodist circles, called Ryan's decision "ridiculous." It is
possible that some of the inmates should have been exonerated because of
questions regarding their cases, he said, "but there was no question about
the guilt of others." He expressed concern that convicted murderers would
eventually be free to murder again.  

When delegates to the United Methodist General Conference met in 1980, they
approved a resolution against the death penalty. Phillips was the only
delegate who spoke against it when it reached the floor of the international
assembly. In the legislative committee that brought the resolution to the
floor, 69 members supported it, nine opposed it, and one abstained from
voting.

"I objected," said Phillips, "because I thought it was inconsistent. On one
hand, the delegates said they were in favor of abortion that could take the
life of an unborn child for no reason. On the other hand, they said we
shouldn't take the life of another person, an adult who had forfeited his
right to live because he wouldn't follow the rules of a civilized society."
Phillips currently serves on the denomination's General Council on Finance
and Administration.

The official policy of the church, as reaffirmed by the 2000 General
Conference in Cleveland, supports the right of a woman to choose abortion,
but not when it is used for birth control or gender selection. Delegates to
that conference added their opposition to late-term abortions known as
dilation and extraction or "partial-birth abortions."

The substantial statement on capital punishment has been retained, with
slight revisions, by each subsequent conference since adoption in 1980. The
statement opposes the use of capital punishment in "any form or carried out
by any means" and urges its abolition. United Methodist agencies and
committees are urged to work to change policies that permit executions. 

Church's impact on society

John and Charles Wesley, brothers who founded the Methodist movement, worked
energetically among the poor and with prisoners, but according to the Rev.
Charles Yrigoyen Jr., staff executive for the United Methodist Commission on
Archives and History, there is no documentation that they condemned capital
punishment. John did write a short tract, "A Word to a Malefactor," addressed
to those about to be executed.

Do official resolutions from groups such as the United Methodist Church make
any difference? Do they influence legislative decisions or the behavior of
members? Do they contribute to the wider debate in society?

Kenrick Fealing is program director for civil and human rights for the
denomination's Board of Church and Society, with offices in Washington. "Many
people in the pews are not aware the Social Principles even exist," he said.
"That is a big concern of our staff, and we are trying to do something about
it."

Just before talking with United Methodist News Service, Fealing said he and
other staff members were meeting with a group of United Methodist leaders
from across the country who had come to learn about the board's work and how
the church seeks to witness to Jesus Christ in today's world.

"I carry with me a copy of the church's Book of Resolutions and Social
Principles," Fealing said.  "I want people to know that we as staff don't
speak out on issues because we individually might have a particular
ideological or theological bent. The bases for our witness are these official
documents of the church."

The current Book of Resolutions, adopted by the 2000 General Conference,
includes 863 pages and addresses hundreds of issues. "These are attempts to
put our faith in action and to witness to our commitment to follow Jesus
Christ's ministry," Fealing said. "It is a big book, but the church is a part
of the larger community where there are many concerns and issues. Members and
people in general look to us for direction. They want guidance as to how to
deal with real-life issues. We need to be relevant to the everyday needs of
people.  If we aren't relevant to their needs, we have no reason to exist."

In 2001, the denomination's Boards of Church and Society and Global
Ministries filed an amicus brief before the U.S. Supreme Court opposing the
death penalty for the mentally disabled. Action alerts, press statements,
legislative tracking and tips for advocates are available from the Board of
Church and Society at http://www.umc-gbcs.org/.   

Bishop Kenneth Carder, who leads the church's Mississippi Area, affirms the
value of official church statements as important resources for education and
dialogue within congregations and the larger society. However, he said, "we
have fallen short (in) sharing the church's position and the theological and
ethical rationale for that position."

People are not changed by arguments or carefully crafted statements as much
as by relationships and personal involvement, Carder said. "What is missing
most in our efforts on behalf of authentic justice are relationships with
both victims and perpetrators. We are transformed by people more than
propositions. I know my position on capital punishment has been influenced by
visiting persons on death row as well as the families of murder victims."

Most of the major Protestant groups in the United States have formal
statements opposing capital punishment, with the notable exception of the 11
million-member Southern Baptist tradition. Messengers to the 2000 Southern
Baptist Convention in Orlando, Fla., overwhelmingly approved a resolution
affirming capital punishment "as a legitimate form of punishment for those
guilty of murder or treasonous acts that result in death." The Baptists said
the penalty should be used only in cases of "clear and overwhelming evidence
of guilt." It should be "applied as justly and as fairly as possible without
undue delay, without reference to the race, class or status of the guilty." 

That concern about fairness is great among opponents such as Harmon Wray, a
United Methodist who has fought capital punishment for more than 25 years.
The profile of a death row inmate, he says, is a person of color who is poor,
mentally ill or brain damaged, and who is charged with killing a white
victim. Wray had directed the United Methodist Office of Restorative Justice,
which closed last year because of budget cuts.

Views from outside U.S.

The Rev. Peter Storey, a leader in the Methodist Church of Southern Africa,
also affirms the value of churches speaking out against capital punishment.
Storey was Nelson Mandela's prison chaplain and a close associate of Anglican
Archbishop Desmond Tutu in the church's anti-apartheid struggles. He is
teaching the "Practice of Christian Ministry" at United Methodist-related
Duke University Divinity School in Durham, N.C.

Official church positions must be deeply grounded in scripture, Storey
stressed. "Many people who support the death penalty point to 'an eye for an
eye and a tooth for a tooth,' one of the only Old Testament teachings that
Jesus specifically called upon his followers to disobey."  

While resolutions or official statements are important, he stressed the
importance of backing them up with serious educational programs to help
members understand why such actions are taken. 

The first act of the new constitutional court in South Africa after
liberation was to abolish the death penalty, according to Storey. "Prior to
that, there were 14 or 15 executions every Friday. 

"While South Africa has a serious crime problem, the government has resisted
efforts to reinstate the death penalty," he said. He discounts the position
of some that if the death penalty is abolished, an increase in violent crime
will follow. "There are countries that have abolished the death penalty where
crime has gone up, and there are countries where it has gone down," he said.
 
"It is a puzzle to people around the world that a society that seems to be so
advanced in so many ways as the U.S. is increasingly becoming the odd one out
when it comes to retaining the death penalty," Storey said.

Particularly puzzling, he added, is the "barbaric" practice of allowing
family members of victims to view executions. "While there are no public
executions in the United States, neither are they private," he said. "I
really can't understand how that can contribute to healing, unless we really
believe that revenge heals."

Storey recalled how Nelson Mandela came close to being legally hanged at one
point in his anti-apartheid struggle. "I wonder what history would have
looked like if the judge in his case had not decided for some reason against
applying the death penalty."

German Bishop Walter Klaiber said the death penalty was abolished there in
1948, largely because the Nazi regime used it against political opponents.
Efforts to reintroduce it in recent years have had little support, he said,
largely because of the perception of what is happening in the United States.
"The high rate of people who are wrongly sentenced to death upsets people."
He said Ryan's recent actions were "highly praised" in Germany.  

Klaiber said United Methodists in Germany who travel in the United States are
sometimes astonished about the discrepancy between the church's Social
Principles and the opinions of people in the pews. "In general, the way the
death penalty is handled in the United States is a major source of irritation
about a culture in a great country."  

Forfeiting rights

Phillips said he bases his support of capital punishment on the Old
Testament. "It is clear that people in those days could lose their right to
life by their actions," he said. "It seems to me that the death penalty is a
legal matter rather than a religious matter."

Some victims may be vindictive, Phillips said, "but individuals forfeit their
right to live in society when they don't abide by the rules of society. If
persons are convicted of murder and other horrible things before the murder,
they have forfeited their rights, and the state shouldn't have to pay for
them to stay in prison for the rest of their life. Many won't stay in prison
for the rest of their lives anyway. They will get out to rape and murder
again.	We must protect innocent people."

Anne Marshall, whose husband died in the Oklahoma City bomb blast, disagrees
with the blanket nature of the United Methodist Social Principles and says
each case must be considered individually. In cases where guilt is clear and
individuals have no remorse, she believes "the punishment must fit the
crime." 

She revealed for the first time publicly that she was one of 10 family
members and survivors chosen randomly to view the execution of bomber Timothy
McVeigh. Her husband, Raymond Johnson, was among 168, including 19 children,
killed in the blast. McVeigh's death was the first federal execution in 38
years. Marshall is on staff at the church's Commission on Christian Unity and
Interreligious Concerns in New York.

Witnessing the execution brought no closure, nor was she expecting it,
Marshall said. "It did provide a way I could let go. There is never closure,
but I can put my life in perspective. With McVeigh's death, I realized his
reputation would not live on in books he would write. He would have no
literary career. There would be no famous movie, or at least a series of
movies about him. That's where the closure came. I know he can't damage me
anymore."

Bishops step forward

Following action of the 1996 General Conference, an Inter-agency Task Force
on Restorative Justice was created, including representatives from all
program agencies of the church. An Office of Restorative Justice Ministries
was established in 1999 at the Scarritt-Bennett Center in Nashville, Tenn.,
but was closed in a cost-cutting measure by the Board of Global Ministries in
2002. 

Wray, former director of the office, is the author of Restorative Justice:
Moving Beyond Punishment, a book produced by United Methodist Women as part
of their annual mission studies for 2002. He emphasizes the importance of
backing up denominational statements with educational resources and advocacy.

"For me, the death penalty is fundamentally about revenge," Wray said. "If
there is anything our Lord was against, it was revenge." 

A resolution adopted by the 2000 General Conference encourages bishops to
oppose capital punishment and to request that all clergy and lay officials
preach, teach and exemplify the teaching of the church. Specifically, they
are encouraged to call on governors and state legislators in capital
punishment states to commute existing death sentences to life imprisonment
and work for the abolition of capital punishment.

Some bishops have stepped forward, including Bishop Ann B. Sherer of the
Missouri Area, who watched a convicted murderer die by lethal injection in
November 2000 and shared her emotional experience in a widely circulated
commentary. She stressed that she was not condoning the actions of the
convict, but at the same time, she protested the large number of people
executed in the state since the death penalty was re-instituted in 1989. "The
cycle of violence continues, and we share in it," she said. 

In January 2000, while serving the Fort Worth Area, Bishop Joe A. Wilson, now
retired, sent a letter to then-Gov. George W. Bush, pleading with him for a
moratorium on capital punishment. "I continue to be dismayed by the number of
executions being performed in the state of Texas," the bishop wrote. "As a
United Methodist, I hope you will consider the stand of your church on the
death penalty." 

Two years earlier, Wilson and other area church leaders in the region
unsuccessfully tried to get Bush to call off the execution of Karla Faye
Tucker, which took place Feb. 3, 1998.	"Any way one looks at it, the death
penalty system is wrong," Wilson declared.

Texas has executed more inmates by far than any other state since 1976. Of
the 820 executions, Texas has been responsible for 189 since reinstating the
death penalty in 1977. Last year, Texas led with almost half of the 71
executions nationwide. For executions per 10,000 population, Delaware leads
with a rate of .166, followed by Oklahoma with 1.45 and Texas with .126.

It was in 1976 that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the death penalty was
constitutional under the Eighth Amendment. The court had ruled in 1972 that
Georgia's death penalty statute, which allowed juries discretion in
sentencing, could lead to arbitrary death sentences and therefore amounted to
"cruel and unusual" punishment. That decision resulted in capital punishment
being suspended in states around the country and death penalty laws
eventually being rewritten.
 
The statement in the United Methodist Book of Resolutions reports that
between 1972 and 1999, more than 70 people were released from death row as a
result of being wrongly convicted. On average, for every seven people
executed, one person under a death sentence is found innocent, the statement
notes. 

Reflecting on his efforts to stop executions, Carder said he is even more
convinced today that capital punishment serves "no role other than desire for
vengeance and retribution, which is contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ
and counterproductive in addressing the serious problem of crime and
violence."

No evidence exists that the death penalty deters violent crime or contributes
to the well-being of victims, he said. 

"One of my most memorable experiences was visiting with a mother about 10
minutes after her son was executed," Carder said. "She was an active member
of a local United Methodist church but no one in her church knew her son was
executed in another state.  She loved her son no less than the parents of the
victim of her son's crime. The death penalty only created another grieving
mother!"

Jesus took a position on capital punishment, Carder said. "When confronted
with a woman who was guilty of a capital offense by the laws of the day,
Jesus shifted the whole question from who deserves to be executed to who
deserves to execute. Jesus stopped an execution of a guilty person by
insisting that those without guilt are qualified to throw the stones, or pull
the switch, or inject the needle."
#  #  #
*McAnally, former director of United Methodist News Service, lives in
Nashville, Tenn.

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
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