Close Up: The death penalty - what would Jesus do?
4/1/2003 News media contact: Tim Tanton · (615) 742-5470 · Nashville, Tenn.
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 and UMC.org Report
By Tom McAnally*
Capital
punishment has always been a difficult issue for religious and
non-religious people alike. Debate over it has intensified in recent
years, particularly in the United States. Thirty-eight states have the
death penalty on their books. A UMNS photo illustration by Mike DuBose.
Photo number 03-119, Accompanies UMNS #189, 4/1/03
No Long Caption Available for this Story
A UMNS photo by John C. Goodwin
Opponents of the death penalty rally outside the New Jersey Statehouse in Trenton in this 2001 file photograph.
Opponents
of the death penalty rally outside the New Jersey Statehouse in Trenton
in this 2001 file photograph. Capital punishment has always been a
difficult issue for religious and non-religious people alike. Debate
over it has intensified in recent years, particularly in the United
States. A UMNS photo by John C. Goodwin. Photo number 03-122,
Accompanies UMNS #189, 4/1/03
Figures
representing Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and a Cold War-era electric
chair dominate an exhibit at the New-York Historical Society Museum in
this 2002 file photograph. The Rosenbergs were executed in 1953 for
conspiracy to aid the Soviet Union. Capital punishment has always been a
difficult issue for religious and non-religious people alike. Debate
over it has intensified in recent years, particularly in the United
States. A UMNS photo by John C. Goodwin. Photo number 03-121,
Accompanies UMNS #189, 4/1/03
No Long Caption Available for this Story
J.
Taylor Phillips, a state court judge from Macon, Ga., calls a decision
by former Illinois Gov. George Ryan to empty that state s death row
ridiculous. It is possible that some of the inmates should have been
exonerated because of questions regarding their cases, he says, but
there was no question about the guilt of others. Phillips, a United
Methodist, spoke during the 1980 General Conference against a resolution
that opposed the death penalty. The resolution was adopted. A UMNS
photo illustration by Mike DuBose. Photo number 03-120, Accompanies UMNS
#189, 4/1/03
No Long Caption Available for this Story
Thirty-eight
states have the death penalty on their books, though not all of them
have imposed it. As of Jan. 1, the states in purple have had no
executions since 1976 -- the year the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that
capital punishment was constitutional. The map is based on data from the
Death Penalty Information Center. A UMNS graphic by Laura J. Latham.
Photo 03-123, Accompanies story #189, 4/1/03
No Long Caption Available for this Story
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.