Episcopalians long invested in former death row inmate 'grateful for the life spared'

From Tennessee-

Episcopalians play a special role in Tennessee inmate Abu-Ali Abdur'Rahman's life behind bars. 

They are his visitors to death row, his courtroom supporters and his bishop. 

On Friday, the Episcopalians were among the slate of people who welcomed Criminal Court Judge Monte Watkins' decision to remove Abdur'Rahman from Tennessee's death row. 

"I’m very thankful to God for this good news about Abu," Tennessee Episcopal Bishop John Bauerschmidt said in an email. "The Episcopal Church has long spoken against the death penalty through resolutions of our General Convention." 

Instead of being put to death on April 16, Abdur'Rahman, 68, will spend the rest of his life in prison for the 1986 Nashville stabbings that killed Patrick Daniels and wounded Norma Jean Norman. At the time, Abdur'Rahman went by the name James L. Jones Jr.

More here-

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/religion/2019/08/31/tennessee-death-row-inmate-abu-ali-abdurrahman-episcopalians/2153387001/

Tennessee Episcopal bishops join push to spare death row inmate Donnie Johnson's life

From Tennessee-

Two Episcopal bishops in Tennessee are joining calls from other religious leaders in the state for the governor to spare the life of death row inmate Donnie Johnson. 

In a letter appealing to Gov. Bill Lee, Bishop Brian L. Cole, who leads the Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee, said the life Johnson has lived behind bars demonstrates the power of faith and forgiveness. 

"Ending his life now would only show a violent world that more violence is an answer," Cole said in the May 8 letter. "I believe there is another way available to you — to show our state that forgiveness and mercy is the true measure of mature authority and a wise measure of executive power." 

Johnson, who was sentenced to death for the 1984 murder of his wife, Connie Johnson, is scheduled to be executed Thursday at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.

More here-

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/religion/2019/05/10/donnie-johnson-execution-episcopal-bishop-brian-cole-joins-push-spare-inmates-life/1164093001/

Atlanta bishop rallies opposition to death penalty with book of articles by faith, legal leaders

From ENS-

The death penalty was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976. Since then, 1,468 convicts have been executed across the country.

And, according to records kept by the Death Penalty Information Center, more than 80 percent of those executions have been carried out in the South, which Diocese of Atlanta Bishop Robert Wright sees as a “terrible irony” for a region known as the Bible Belt.

“People want the love of Jesus for themselves, in terms of redemption, but they want the Old Testament ‘eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth’ for the people who do these terrible murders,” Wright told Episcopal News Service. “Do we serve a God who can have compassion for the victim and the perpetrator?”

For Wright, the answer is an unequivocal “yes,” and he is heartened by the Episcopal Church’s decades of speaking out against the death penalty while also providing pastoral care to victims’ families.

The Supreme Court’s 1976 decision outlined how states can craft constitutional death penalty laws. Thirty-one states have such laws, and eight of those states carried out executions in 2017, including one in Wright’s state of Georgia. In an effort to renew public attention to the issue and encourage greater advocacy toward abolishing the death penalty, Wright has collected five articles by faith and legal leaders in a book to be released Feb. 15 by the Diocese of Atlanta.

More here-

https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2018/02/12/atlanta-bishop-rallies-opposition-to-death-penalty-with-book-of-articles-by-faith-legal-leaders/

Christians & the Death Penalty

From Commonweal-

I would be lying if I claimed that my initial approach to By Man Shall His Blood Be Shed was an unprejudiced one—I am firmly convinced that no Christian who truly understands his or her faith can possibly defend the practice of capital punishment—but I was not unwilling to give the book a fair hearing. My convictions on the matter may be fixed, but they are not always passionate. There have been various occasions over the years when I have found myself desiring the deaths of some especially vicious criminals, including two who casually murdered an exceptionally gentle friend of mine when I was in college. And I have never shed a tear over the Nazis executed by the Allies after the Second World War. I am quite able to be heartless toward the heartless. But this book would exhaust the ruthlessness of Torquemada.

I might have guessed that something was terribly amiss just from the title. There is nothing especially mysterious about it: it is more or less inevitable that any substantial attempt at a Christian defense of capital punishment will repeat two tediously persistent exegetical errors—a misuse of Genesis 9:6 (hence the title) and a misreading of Romans 13:1–7. But it makes some difference which of the two is accorded priority. If the latter, then in all likelihood the argument being made is merely that the death penalty is theologically licit; if the former, that it is morally necessary. And so it is in this case: the claim Feser and Bessette advance is not simply that Catholics may approve of capital punishment, but that they must, and that it actually borders on heresy not to do so. Needless to say, an assertion that bold requires a formidable array of corroborating evidence, and this Feser and Bessette fail to provide. What they have produced instead is relentlessly ill-conceived. Its arguments, philosophical and historical, are feeble. Its treatment of biblical texts is crude, its patristic scholarship careless. And all too often it exhibits a moral insensibility that is truly repellant.

More here-

https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/christians-death-penalty

Pope Francis calls for change to Catholic teaching on death penalty

From CNN-

Pope Francis said the death penalty was "inadmissable" and that official Catholic teaching should be changed to reflect that, comments with the potential to reshape the church's public stance on the controversial issue.

"It must be strongly stated that condemning a person to the death penalty is an inhumane measure," the Pope said Thursday. He was speaking at a Vatican conference celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a guide to church teaching published under Pope John Paul II, who died in 2005.

The Catholic Church currently teaches that recourse to the death penalty is permitted but "the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity are very rare if not practically nonexistent."

Both John Paul II and Benedict XVI spoke out against the death penalty, but Francis is the first Pope to suggest changing official church teaching on the issue.


More here-


http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/12/world/pope-death-penalty/index.html

Diocese of Southern Ohio objects to reinstatement of death penalty

From Southern Ohio-

The Diocese of Southern Ohio, in partnership with other community faith leaders, and a host of death row exonerees, is urgently encouraging Governor Kasich to reconsider the reinstatement of this punishment given the state’s questionable history of wrongful convictions and botched executions.

“While certain crimes can be difficult to forgive, we must remember that we are all children of God,” Bishop Thomas Breidenthal said. “As Christians, we should respect human life as precious, and not sanction death via our very human, and sometimes flawed, criminal justice system.”

Those looking to learn more or get involved with the movement are encouraged to contact their respective congress person or senator and ask them to halt this process, or by signing the petition via the link below:

More here-

http://www.theglobaldispatch.com/diocese-of-southern-ohio-objects-to-reinstatement-of-death-penalty-60731/

Pope Francis: The death penalty is a “mortal sin” and “inadmissible”

From American Magazine-

Faith is a journey guided by the Holy Spirit, who helps the church grow in understanding the sinful nature of once-accepted practices like slavery and the death penalty, Pope Francis said.

While people once even used religious reasons to justify practices such as slavery, the death penalty and "wars of religion," over time the Holy Spirit has deepened the church's understanding of the Gospel, the pope said on May 11 in his homily during morning Mass at Domus Sanctae Marthae.

Slavery "is a mortal sin; today we say this. Back then, some would say that this could be done because these people did not have a soul!" he said. The number of people enslaved today is "even more, but at least we know that it is a mortal sin. The same goes for the death penalty; for a time, it was normal. Today, we say that the death penalty is inadmissible."

More here-

http://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/05/11/pope-francis-death-penalty-mortal-sin-and-inadmissible

California Episcopal bishops issue statement supporting Proposition 62, repeal of death penalty

From ENS-

Episcopal bishops from all six dioceses in California have issued a statement supporting Proposition 62, which, if passed, would repeal the death penalty in the state. The statement follows.

Grace and peace to you, in the Name of Jesus Christ. We are the bishops of the six dioceses of the Episcopal Church in California. We believe that the citizens of our state face a profound moral choice this November in the form of Proposition 62. That measure, if approved, will end the death penalty in our state, replacing it with a sentence of life without parole.

While we acknowledge that this may be an issue on which reasonable people of good faith might disagree, we want to reaffirm emphatically our Church’s opposition to the death penalty, a position first officially stated by our General Convention in 1958. Then, and in subsequent statements, the Episcopal Church has based its opposition to the death penalty in our understanding of God’s justice, our regard for the sacredness of human life, our commitment to respect the dignity of every human being, our desire to seek and serve Christ in all persons, and our mission to continue Christ’s work of reconciliation in this world.

More here-

http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2016/10/14/california-episcopal-bishops-issue-statement-supporting-proposition-62-repeal-of-death-penalty/

Religious leaders decry move to reinstate death penalty in New Mexico

From New Mexico-

Religious leaders in New Mexico are slamming the governor and House Republicans for voting to reinstate the death penalty during an all-night special session, leaving little opportunity for a debate.

While the efforts were made futile after the Senate refused to consider the bill, the condemnation is indicative of the conflict the issue is sure to draw when the Legislation reconvenes in January, The Santa Fe New Mexican reported.

(snip)

The Rev. Michael L. Vono, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande in Albuquerque, said Martinez and Rep. Monica Youngblood, R-Albuquerque, who co-sponsored the bill, “lack moral and ethical leadership and should be ashamed of themselves. . One can only hope and pray that the upcoming elections will provide us with more responsible leaders in this state.”

More here-

http://www.pressherald.com/2016/10/07/religious-leaders-decry-move-to-reinstate-death-penalty-in-new-mexico/

Episcopal bishops speak out against death penalty ahead of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev sentencing

From Massachusetts-

The state's three Episcopal bishops, including the Right Rev. Douglas Fisher of the Western Massachusetts diocese, have issued a statement reaffirming their church's stance against the death penalty. The statement adds to the voices of those taking stands on the fate of convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

Referencing a letter written by the family of bombing victim Martin Richard at the start of the sentencing phase of Tsarnaev's trial this week, the statement says, as that letter "movingly asserted, justice will be fully served by a life sentence without parole."

A jury found the 21-year-old Tsarnaev guilty April 8 on all 30 charges in the first phase of the trial.

More here-

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2015/04/massachusetts_episcopal_bishop_1.html

The Bible tells me so: Prospective jurors cite scripture, religion in death penalty case

From North Carolina-


One by one, dozens of potential jurors being picked through in a capital murder case have been queried about their opinion of the death penalty.

More will be questioned this week in preparation for Robert Dennis Dixon’s trial. Dixon, 49, could face the death penalty if found guilty of first-degree murder, hiring men to kill his stepmother in 2007.

Since jury selection began Aug. 5, the standard question asked of jurors is whether they have “any moral, personal or religious beliefs” about the death penalty that would impair them from fairly hearing the case.

Their responses are varied and display deeply held beliefs, especially where religion is concerned. Most state they support the death penalty in limited cases based on a combination of personal and religious beliefs. A few people have been excused for strong religious convictions against capital punishment.

When religion is the basis for their beliefs — either for or against capital punishment — they often cite the Bible.

More here-

http://www.thetimesnews.com/news/top-news/the-bible-tells-me-so-prospective-jurors-cite-scripture-religion-in-death-penalty-case-1.188682

Episcopal leaders push to abolish death penalty across the country

From ENS-

When Gov. Dannel Malloy signed a bill in April making Connecticut the fifth state in five years to abolish the death penalty, Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut Bishop Suffragan James Curry’s attendance at the ceremony testified to the influence of Episcopal leaders on ending capital punishment in the state.

Curry and other members of the diocese had worked with the Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty since the 2005 execution of serial killer Michael Ross, the first prisoner put to death in New England in 45 years.

Abolishing the death penalty became “a very, very contentious issue” in Connecticut after two recently released prisoners invaded a home and “brutally murdered” two girls and their mother in 2007, he said.

“In the midst of that, it was very hard to have a conversation in this state about not demanding the death penalty for such horrific crimes,” Curry said. “It was also a time in the church where we started to shift the conversation from that this is punishment to [that] the death penalty is really about the kind of statement we want to make about what we want our society to be.”

More here-

http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2012/06/13/episcopal-leaders-push-to-abolish-death-penalty-across-the-country/

Connecticut Senate votes to repeal state's death penalty

From Conn.-

Despite public support for the death penalty, Connecticut may become the next state to abolish capital punishment. The state's Senate approved a bill to repeal the death penalty early Thursday.

Legislative action was delayed last year amid the high-profile prosecution of a death penalty case involving a brutal home invasion that left a mother and her two daughters dead. The Senate voted 20-16 to approve legislation that would replace the death penalty with life without parole, Reuters reported.

"In the state of Connecticut, the death penalty is randomly applied," Senate President Donald E. Williams, Jr., a Democrat, told msnbc.com ahead of the vote. "Police chiefs in recent surveys across the country have said that it's the least effective tool to deter violent crime and it's applied in a discriminatory way, whether it’s racially, economically or geographically.”

More here-

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/04/11017618-connecticut-senate-votes-to-repeal-states-death-penalty?lite

March Against The Death Penalty

From Conn.

An Easter Week march in Hartford will highlight opposition to the state’s death penalty law by Connecticut Christian religious leaders.

The Bishops of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut and others are marching beginning at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday from Christ Church Cathedral to the Capitol, where Connecticut legislators are considering a bill this session to end the death penalty for future cases and replace it with life in prison.

Religious leaders say they will enact the Stations of the Cross during the march, with prayers and meditations on the abolition of the death penalty offered at each station. The stations depict the lead-up to Jesus’ crucifixion.

The proposal to repeal the state’s death penalty is awaiting action in the state Senate.

http://connecticut.cbslocal.com/2012/04/03/march-against-the-death-penalty/

On Ash Wednesday, Clergy Lobby For Death Penalty Repeal

From Maryland-

Religious leaders from various faiths held a rally in Annapolis calling on lawmakers to repeal the death penalty.

In 2009, a Senate committee rejected a repeal backed by Governor Martin O'Malley, and instead passed legislation that would place further restrictions on death penalty prosecutions.

Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, believe that lawmakers can be convinced to change their minds and support a repeal. He noted many of the civil rights laws of the 1960's were passed after years of lobbying from religious leaders.

Sutton presented a letter to the governor and the General Assembly today signed by 200 religious leaders of various faiths calling for a repeal. He noted that repealing the death penalty is one of the few issues on which all religious leaders agree.

More here-

http://wbal.com/article/86983/21/template-story/On-Ash-Wednesday-Clergy-Lobby-For-Death-Penalty-Repeal

Montana clergy wage campaign that could save Canadian killer

From Montana-

While Canada’s Conservative government is still weighing whether to comply with a Federal Court order and resume efforts to seek clemency for the only Canadian on death row in the U.S., a coalition of Montana religious leaders has launched its own bid to help abolish capital punishment in their state.

The Montana clergy are backing a bill that would save Alberta-born killer Ronald Smith from execution.

Renewed debate over capital punishment and the fate of Smith produced oddly divergent arguments in the two countries last week, with the Conservative government here accusing opposition MPs of being too sympathetic to killers while the alliance of Montana clergy decried the “morally corrosive” effects of state-sanctioned executions.

Read more:

http://www.canada.com/life/Montana+clergy+wage+campaign+that+could+save+Canadian+killer/1365875/story.html#ixzz1k0U0dlkS

Firing-squad execution spurs theological reflections

From Indianapolis-

The Rev. Harold V. Smith, retired Episcopal priest

A few days ago, a man was executed for having committed murder. Now comes the question: "How does the condemned man's victim's family feel? What is their reaction to the execution of a man who caused them pain?"

The natural reaction -- probably the impulsive reaction -- might be, "Good riddance of bad rubbish!" Someone has hurt you, hurt you badly, and you find yourself wrestling with a question that's popped into your head: "Should I forgive him? How can I forgive him? Why should I forgive him? And if I forgive him now, will he turn around and hurt me again?"

Many of us have found ourselves in such a quandary. Our natural inclination, when we've been hurt by someone, is to hurt back. "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," some would cry, as if revenge for the wrong is justifiably called for. But contrary to a common practice of the day, Jesus called instead for the wronged one to "turn the other cheek." Our Lord's counsel was always to counter evil with good. When Peter, asking Jesus how many times -- perhaps seven times? -- he should forgive someone, Jesus responded, "Not seven times . . . but 77 times." In other words, forgive as many times as you have been offended.

Jesus gave us the supreme example of forgiving. As he was dying upon the cross, he said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

More here-

http://www.indystar.com/article/20100626/LIVING09/6260335/1007/LIVING/Firing-squad-execution-spurs-theological-reflections

Bishops support death penalty repeal

From that other "Pittsburg"-

A measure being considered by the Kansas Senate Judiciary Committee to repeal the state’s death penalty picked up eight supporters on Friday.

In a letter to the Kansas Legislature, eight bishops of the Episcopal Church, Roman Catholic Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church and United Methodist Church in Kansas signed a letter asking for reconsideration and repeal of the Kansas death penalty.

Signing the letter, dated Jan. 28, were Bishops James M. Adams Jr., Episcopal Diocese of Western Kansas; Paul S. Coakley, Catholic Diocese of Salina; Ronald M. Gilmore, Catholic Diocese of Dodge City; Michael O. Jackels, Catholic Diocese of Wichita; Scott J. Jones, Kansas Area United Methodist Church; Gerald L. Mansholt, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; Joseph F. Naumann, Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City; and Dean Wolfe, Episcopal Diocese of Kansas.
“As bishops leading the Episcopal Church, Roman Catholic Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church and United Methodist Church in Kansas, we write to share our deep concern about the continuing practice of condemning persons to death in Kansas,” the letter said.

Last week the Senate Judiciary Committee opened four days of hearings on the bill.
The state passed the death penalty law in 1994, making death by lethal injection the possible penalty for some murders. However, the state has not executed anyone under the provision since it was enacted.

“We had it last year and we had it for a day and it went to the floor,” said committee chairman Tim Owens, R-Overland Park. “There were so many questions then, I asked the President of the Senate to send it back to committee.”

Owens said that there has been additional information received since it was on the Senate floor during last session.

More here-

http://www.morningsun.net/news/x1090830274/Bishops-support-death-penalty-repeal

Clerics united in opposition to death penalty

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette-

It could be the start of a groan-worthy joke.

A Catholic priest, a rabbi, an Episcopal rector, a Methodist minister and a Lutheran pastor sit down for some interfaith dialogue.

But yesterday at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in East Liberty, there was no joking about the discussion topic, the death penalty.

The Judeo-Christian religions have come a long way from the Old Testament notion of an eye for an eye, the panelists said. Representatives of the five religions said their churches have officially come out strongly against America's use of the death penalty.

The panel discussion, which was sponsored by the Pittsburgh Faith in Action Against the Death Penalty group, came just a few days after a Washington County jury unanimously decided against the death penalty for Terrell Yarbrough, 29, of East Liberty. Mr. Yarbrough was sentenced to life without parole for the shooting deaths of two Franciscan University of Steubenville students in 1999.

Pennsylvania has executed three people since 1976, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center, but has 226 people on death row.

The Rev. Donald Green, a Lutheran pastor and the executive director of Christian Associates of Southwest Pennsylvania, moderated the discussion among the four panelists, who each presented their church's official stance on the death penalty.

"At the core of Catholic understanding is the worth and dignity of every human being, and the protection thereby," said the Rev. Frank Almade, the pastor of St. Juan Diego Parish in Sharpsburg.

Speaking for the United Methodist Church was the Rev. David Morse, a retired pastor and the chair of the Western Pennsylvania United Methodist Conference Board of Ordained Ministry. The United Methodist Church opposes the death penalty, he said, and urges "restorative justice" rather than "justice of punishment, or vengeance."

Rabbi Art Donsky, the spiritual leader of Temple Ohav Shalom in McCandless, outlined the evolution of death penalty position in Jewish scripture, thought and practice.

"There would be no moral or legal grounds within Jewish tradition to execute anyone," he said.

The Rev. Moni McIntyre, rector of Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Homewood, said the Episcopal Church has made pronouncements against the taking of human life, including through the death penalty.


Read more:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09313/1011924-455.stm#ixzz0WNvcimJB

Execution isn't path to a peaceful society

Maryland Bishops sound off on the Death Penalty (and I agree).

Execution isn't path to a peaceful society
As Christians, church leaders and bishops in the Episcopal Church, we urge the General Assembly to act to abolish the death penalty ("Report fuels death debate," Dec. 13).

As Christians, we are guided by the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. Here he specifically rejects retribution by stating that even the teaching in the Old Testament of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" is to be rejected in favor of the teaching that calls for reconciliation (Matthew, 6:38).

Responding to killing with more killing will not make society less violent. Retaliating for death with death is not simply punishment but a further justification of violence as a way of life. We simply cannot kill our way out of the violence.

The uneven application of the death penalty also points to its fundamental unfairness. And the reality is that, as a result of prosecutorial discretion, the death penalty is most often used against people of color and poorer people.

Full statement is here-

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/letters/bal-ed.le.letters18d10dec18,0,6223869.story