Interfaith Luncheon Draws Many Opposed to the Death Penalty

OKLAHOMA CITY  —  Repres-entatives from a number of  different faiths joined with Catholics opposed to capital punishment at a luncheon entitled: “Faith in Action on the Death Penalty.”  The luncheon was held at Saint Luke United Methodist Church.

Reverend Major Jemison, Pastor of Saint John Missionary Baptist Church in Oklahoma City, said it was the Oklahoma bombing in April 1995 that changed his mind and heart about the death penalty. His church lost four members.

 “I have come full-circle since then, moving from a stage of anger to a stage of a great deal of empathy and sympathy not only for the victims but also for the perpetrators of the crime,” he said.

After the bombing, Jemison had to dig deeply into the context of his own faith, for himself and for the families in his church. He was angry and wanted to see something done. He soon discovered that “an eye for an eye, a life for a life” was not going to bring him and his congregation the peace and closure they were seeking.

“In the Old Testament, the Bible says, ‘An eye for an eye,’” Jemison said. “But when we look at Scripture holistically, when we look at it as a development, we notice that Jesus does not want us to be vindictive. Jesus said, ‘Love your neighbor. Love your enemies.’ He wants us to go that second mile.

“All individuals have worth in God’s sight. We have to go about practicing what Christianity really means. We have to get to the Agape love, unconditional love,” he said. “We need to put into practice the Christian principles of human life and loving our neighbor. The death penalty does not accomplish that.”

Jemison ended by telling the audience that life in prison is better than the death penalty because, hopefully, the time spent in prison will rehabilitate the individual. “Vengeance is not ours.  It is His [God’s],” Jemison said. “We need to be about restoring life and lifting life to a higher plane, not extinguishing it.”

 Reverend Stan Basler, Director of Criminal Justice and Mercy Ministries for the United Methodist Church of Oklahoma, like Jemison, reflected on the death penalty at the time of the Oklahoma bombing. He had been downtown when the body bags were coming in and said that television  did not accurately portray what those on the ground saw.

As he looked at the carnage around him, he thought, “Come Sunday I’m going to be in front of the United Methodist Church. What is my reaction to this violence? The Bible presses us toward the Kingdom of God. Would the Kingdom of God be a place where we would kill another person?” He decided it would not.

Shirley Cox, an attorney and Director of Social Justice for Catholic Charities, said, “The Catholic Church says life is important from conception to natural death. Therefore, the death penalty is not acceptable. The Most Reverend Howard Hubbard, Catholic Bishop of Albany, New York, put it this way, ‘While justice demands that we resort to vengeance, revenge does not bring closure; it merely continues the cycle of violence begun by the perpetrator.’”

Cox said often the rush to judgment results in mistakes. “Innocence is an issue,” Cox said. “Sometimes, there is a rush to judgment. We use jailhouse snitches. They plea-bargain to have a reduced sentence. Sometimes, there is lost DNA. There are lost witnesses. Defense attorneys sometimes make mistakes; there are cases of defense attorneys not having time to research cases or of sleeping in the courtroom. Juries misunderstand instructions by the judge. Is the death penalty worth it if even one innocent person is executed?”

Reverend Bill Wiseman was in Oklahoma City visiting from Trinity Episcopal Church in Tulsa. He said that statistics showed that rather than deterring crime, “among a particular group of young males, the potential threat of capital punishment is actually a ‘turn-on’”.  

Others added, “there is a higher rate of murder in states that have the death penalty than those that do not” and “defendants are impulsive”, reflecting neither on getting caught nor on the death penalty.  If the death penalty is not a deterrent, Wiseman wondered, “Are we better off with it or without it?”

Those at the luncheon were encouraged to contact their legislators about the three bills concerning capital punishment, currently pending in the Oklahoma legislature. Rep. Opio Toure, D-Oklahoma City, introduced HB 2738 and HB 2739. The bill would create a task force to determine if any of the 158 people executed by Oklahoma were innocent while HB 2739 would abolish the death penalty.

Sen. Constance Johnson, D-Oklahoma City, introduced SB 2009. The bill would create a task force to look at whether or not Oklahoma’s system of capital punishment “meets the constitutional standards set forth by the Supreme Court” and if Oklahoma’s use of the death penalty has an “arbitrary, capricious, or disproportionate impact on racial minorities”.

Wiseman encouraged the audience to contact their state legislators and ask them to support these bills and to get other constituents from their districts to do the same.  

Such actions, he said, “would have a huge impact because the legislature does not think the abolition of the death penalty has any support.” He ended his talk with a quote from Mark Twain for those working to abolish the death penalty: “Always do the right thing. It will please some people and astonish the rest.”