wfn.org | UCC General Synod votes opposition to death penalty

[George Conklin <gconklin@wfn.org>]

United Church of Christ
Office of Communication
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Cleveland, OH 44115
contact: Barbara Powell
phone: 216-736-2222
email: powellb@ucc.org
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PROVIDENCE, RI - July 6 1999 -

Delegates oppose death penalty
by W. Evan Golder
        With hardly any opposition and with a minimum of discussion, General
Synod delegates voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday morning, July 6, to oppose the
death penalty.  The vote was by a show of voting cards, with only about 50 of
the 700plus delegates voting no.
        “When asked, most Americans say they support the death penalty,” said
the Rev. Melodee Smith of Florida, a death penalty attorney and cochair of the
UCC Coalition Against the Death Penalty.  She explained that when the same
people are asked if they support the death penalty for the mentally ill, the
percentage drops.  It continues to drop, she said, when the question includes
the mentally retarded or juveniles.  And it plummets, she added, when people
are asked if they would support the death penalty for members of their own
families.
        Sonia Baker, a lay delegate from San Bernadino, Calif., chaired the
committee which debated the resolution.  In introducing it, she noted that more
than 3,500 hundred persons in the United States are on death rows in 38
different jurisdictions.  The resolution contained 27 “whereas” clauses,
noting, for example, that the death penalty has not proven to be an effective
deterrent to crime, that Scripture repeatedly calls us to overcome evil with
good and to transform hatred with love, and that the death penalty is imposed
significantly more frequently when the victim is white.
        According to Baker, the morninglong committee discussion was
“amicable,”
with most of the energy devoted to strengthening the resolution.  Only one
person spoke against the resolution on the Synod floor, 16yearold Jeff Burt of
Connecticut.  “Our prisons are already overcrowded and holding more prisoners
isn’t going to help much,” he said. “What are we going to do?  Put the serial
killers that are on death row out on bail?”