Death penalty continues despite church's 50-year opposition

A UMNS Report By Tom McAnally*

Fifty years ago, delegates to the Methodist General Conference granted full clergy rights to women. Action by that top legislative body of the denomination prompted anniversary celebrations across the United Methodist Church this year.

Delegates to the 1956 conference in Minneapolis took another historic action that has received little attention. For the first time, delegates put the church officially on record as opposed to the death penalty.

Each Methodist and United Methodist General Conference since that time has reaffirmed its opposition to capital punishment. Meeting every four years, these assemblies are the only bodies that can speak officially for the denomination.

In plenary debate at the 1956 conference, lay and clergy delegates debated several issues related to a proposed update of the church's Social Creed. They discussed the role of the United Nations and argued at length about war and conscientious objection to military service. They talked about capitalism and communism and whether the church should bless any particular economic system. And, as might be expected, they talked about abstinence from drugs and alcoholic beverages.

One thing they didn't debate--at least in the body as a whole--was the addition of a new statement condemning the death penalty. Perhaps all the wrinkles were ironed out in a legislative committee before being sent to the entire body for consideration. Or perhaps a majority of delegates were opposed to the practice and no debate was needed.

Between the 1952 and 1956 Methodist general conferences, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg died in the electric chair, the first civilians to be executed for espionage in the United States. They had been found guilty of conspiring to share atomic secrets with the Soviet Union and were executed June 19, 1953. What influence, if any, their widely publicized trial and executions had on the 1956 delegates is not known. Debate over the Rosenberg trial and their guilt or innocence continues to this day.

Delegates 'deplore' capital punishment
The 1956 Methodist statement opposing the death penalty included two short paragraphs in a section of the Social Creed titled "Treatment of Crime."

"We stand for the application of the redemptive principle to the treatment of offenders against the law, to reform of penal and correctional methods, and to criminal court procedures. For this reason we deplore the use of capital punishment.

"We recognize that crime, and in particular juvenile delinquency leading to crime, is often a result of bad social conditions. Christian citizens and churches have a special opportunity and responsibility for creating those conditions of family life, wholesome recreation, vocational training, personal counseling, and social adjustment by which crime may be reduced."

While women clergy have generally prospered within the denomination since 1956, the new statement deploring the death penalty has apparently had modest influence on governmental policies in the United States.

In an interview with United Methodist News Service, Bill Mefford, director of civil and human rights for the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, said change on the issue has come slowly. "Seeking to abolish the death penalty is a slow and unpredictable process. One can't just look at this issue and say that A plus B equals C."

The long-term challenge is not so much the changing the minds of individual politicians as it is changing the "winds" of public opinion, he said. "We want to further the idea that all of life is worth defending. Church people can do that."

Number of death sentences dropping
While progress may seem slow to some, opponents celebrate the fact that the annual number of death sentences has dropped dramatically from a total of 300 in 1998 to 125 in 2004.

Mefford, a United Methodist layman, is a graduate of Asbury Theological Seminary where he is currently working on a doctor of theology degree. He joined the Washington-based Board of Church and Society staff in February. A native of Tennessee, much of his adult life was spent in Texas, a state which ranks first in the number of executions since 1976 (375) and second, behind California, in the number of inmates now on death row (404).

Mefford is working to reinvigorate "United Methodists against the Death Penalty," a network of death penalty opponents started by one of his staff predecessors. "Capital punishment is an issue being dealt with state by state, but we want United Methodists to know that as they work for change, we at the national level are interested in them and want to offer encouragement and resources."

Today, 38 of the 50 states allow the death penalty. According to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, 1,045 individuals have been executed since 1976. The largest number in a single year was in 1999 with 98 executions. As of September, 41 individuals have been executed this year.

The church's Social Principles, found in both the 2004 United Methodist Book of Discipline and 2004 Book of Resolutions, include a succinct paragraph calling for elimination of the death penalty from all criminal codes.

All human life sacred
"We believe the death penalty denies the power of Christ to redeem, restore, and transform all human beings," the Social Principles statement says. While expressing concern about crime and the value of life taken by murder or homicide, delegates to the most recent General Conference in 2004 reaffirmed the church's position that "all human life is sacred and created by God." United Methodists are urged to see all human life as "significant and valuable."

When governments implement the death penalty the life of the convicted person is "devalued and all possibility of change in that person's life ends," the statement declares. "We believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and that the possibility of reconciliation with Christ comes through repentance. This gift of reconciliation is offered to all individuals without exception and gives all life new dignity and sacredness."

That Social Principles statement is not alone among official United Methodist pronouncements on the subject. No less than five resolutions addressing capital punishment were adopted or reaffirmed by the 2004 General Conference delegates and are included in the 970-page 2004 Book of Resolutions.

Two resolutions adopted first in 2000 were reaffirmed: one urging bishops to be aggressive in opposing capital punishment and another calling for a moratorium on the death penalty.

Bishop Janice Riggle Huie, president of the Council of Bishops, told United Methodist News Service that she is proud of the church's long and consistent stance against the death penalty. "Even though we are aware that all United Methodists don't agree, there has been no significant opposition to the church's position in 50 years. Deep in their hearts they know it speaks to the moral rightness of our policy," said the bishop of the Houston Area.

More lengthy statements giving reasons for opposing capital punishment--one adopted in 1980 and another adopted in 2000--were reaffirmed in 2004, with some revisions. Each includes specific recommendations for individual members, congregations, and church-wide agencies.

Delegates to the 2004 General Conference in Pittsburgh adopted a new resolution specifically opposed to the practice of executing juveniles. Since the first recognized execution of a juvenile offender in 1642, the United States has executed at least 366 people for crimes committed as juveniles and has, since 1990, executed more juvenile offenders than all other countries combined, according to the resolution.

In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court in Roper v. Simmons struck down the death penalty for juveniles

With reasoned arguments for why Christians should oppose the death penalty, why hasn't the church's opposition during these 50 years made a greater difference in U.S. governmental policy?

Does death penalty deter crime?
Well-meaning people of faith weigh in on both sides of the debates. Some argue that the death penalty deters crime, but death penalty opponents point to the 2004 FBI Uniform Crime Report which shows that the South, where 80 percent of the executions occurred, has the highest murder rate. The Death Penalty Information Center reports that a survey of former and present presidents of the country's top academic criminological societies indicates that 84 percent of them rejected the notion that the death penalty acts as a deterrent to murder.

When asked in a May 2006 Gallup Poll whether the death penalty deters murder, 64 percent of those polled said it does not; only 34 percent believe it does. This is a dramatic shift from the 1980s and early 1990s, when the majority of Americans believed that the death penalty prevented murder.

Various polls indicate that a majority of Americans support the death penalty. However that percentage is declining, according to a recent Gallup Poll. When given a choice between the sentencing options of life without parole and the death penalty, Gallup found that only 47 percent of respondents chose capital punishment, the lowest percentage in two decades. Forty-eight percent favored life without parole for those convicted of murder. The poll also revealed that overall support for the death penalty is 65 percent, down significantly from 80 percent in 1994.

Some argue the death penalty is biased against the poor and African Americans, and isn't something that Jesus would do. Thirty-four percent of those executed in the United States since 1976 have been African Americans. Another issue given prominence in recent years is the number of mentally ill individuals executed despite a U.S. Supreme Court decision.

Death row inmates found innocent
It could be that the growing percentage of people opposing the death penalty has been influenced by the significant number of death row inmates found innocent in recent years, thanks to new evidence or revelations. Since 1973, more than 120 people have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence, according to 1993 staff reports from the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights and updated by the Death Penalty Information Center.

In the year 2000, eight inmates were freed from death row and exonerated. Another nine were exonerated from 2001 to2002; 12 in 2003 and six in 2004. One of the most recent cases involved Jeffrey Deskovic who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 1990 for the rape and murder of a high school classmate in New York. He was freed from prison on Sept. 20, 2006, after DNA evidence from the crime was matched with another man who also confessed to the murder. The other man was already in prison for a murder in the same county.

The Innocence Project reports that 184 people have been exonerated through DNA evidence since 1989. Of the 123 who have been exonerated from death row since 1973, 14 were freed as a result of DNA testing. The Innocence Project at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in New York was created by Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld in 1992.

The recent Gallup survey of American public opinion on the death penalty found that 63 percent of those polled believed that an innocent person has been executed in the past five years, an increase over previous results.

Some individuals support the death penalty as justified punishment for crimes committed.

A 1980 General Conference resolution, reaffirmed every quadrennium since, says, "The United Methodist 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 the Redeemer of humankind. In this respect, there can be no assertion that human life can be taken humanely by the state." The statement contends that 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."

Prison ministry transformational
Writing in the Oct. 3, 2006, issue of The Christian Century, United Methodist Bishop Kenneth L. Carder says the criminal justice system is dominated by notions of retribution, vengeance, punishment and isolation. "The core values of the Christian gospel--forgiveness, compassion, redemption, reconciliation, restorative justice--run counter to prevailing sentiments in the justice system," says Carder, who teaches pastoral formation at United Methodist-related Duke University Divinity School.

Involvement with prison and jail ministries keeps pastors focused on critically important matters, writes Carder. "No place confronts us with life-and-death challenges like death row. Relationships with the condemned and those whose job it is to guard them and execute them are among the most intense and transformative pastoral relationships. Capital punishment ceases to be an abstract political, ethical and theological issue.

"Being present with persons who are awaiting execution, along with their families and the families of the victims of violence, pushes the pastor to the edges of faith and stability," says Carder. "Unless it is involved with the people in jails and prisons, the church will surely lack integrity, consistency and dependability."

The Christian Century section titled "I was in prison . . ." includes a reading list on Christians and prisons. Recommended books are also included in an article by Elizabeth Morgan titled, "Wrestling with the death penalty: Crime and Punishment."

A comprehensive web site with up-to-date information about the death penalty, including state-by-state statistics, is at the Death Penalty Information Center. Other sites are: National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

*McAnally, retired director of United Methodist News Service, lives in Nashville.