Church leader urges states to follow Ryan on death cases
1/21/2003 News media contact: Linda Bloom · (646) 369-3759 · New York NOTE: A photograph of Jim Winkler is available at http://umns.umc.org/photos/headshots.html. United Methodist News Service Other
states, along with the federal government, should follow the lead of
outgoing Illinois Gov. George Ryan in commuting the sentences of death
row inmates, according to the chief executive of the United Methodist
Board of Church and Society.
Ryan, a United Methodist, had halted
state executions three years ago while examining the fairness of the
Illinois justice system. On Jan. 10, three days before leaving office,
he announced he was pardoning four prisoners awaiting execution because
he was convinced of their innocence. The next day, he commuted the death
sentences of 167 other inmates, and most of them will serve life
without parole instead.
"Gov. Ryan's decision is consistent with
the United Methodist Social Principles, which state that 'we oppose
capital punishment and urge its elimination from all criminal codes,'"
said Jim Winkler in a statement released Jan. 16 by the Board of Church
and Society.
"Gov. Ryan's action corrected an injustice in the
Illinois death penalty system," he added. "It is time now for other
states and the federal government to follow Gov. Ryan's lead."
Winkler expressed regret that Congress has expanded the number of federal crimes covered by the death penalty.
"Innocent
people are being sent to death row and executed all over the country,"
he said. "Our church has a long history of concern for the poor and for
minorities who have been executed without the opportunity to prove their
innocence or who have been denied the right to competent legal counsel.
Our prayer is that Gov. Ryan's decision will be seen as a watershed
moment in the movement to end the death penalty."
A revised
resolution on capital punishment adopted by the 2000 United Methodist
General Conference, the denomination's top legislative body, said the
church "cannot accept retribution or social vengeance as a reason for
taking human life. It violates our deepest belief in God as the creator
and redeemer of humankind. In this respect, there can be no assertion
that human life can be taken by the state. Indeed, in the long run, 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."
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