May 5, 2008

HULIQ​.com

The Worldwide United Methodist Church sent a mes­sage to Texas dur­ing the General Conference held in Ft. Worth, TX. The General Conference passed a res­o­lu­tion call­ing for the spe­cif­ic abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty in Texas. The United Methodist Church has had a posi­tion against the use of the death penal­ty for more than 50 years and reaf­firmed that spe­cif­ic posi­tion in sep­a­rate res­o­lu­tions for the whole church as well.

The Texas spe­cif­ic res­o­lu­tion orig­i­nat­ed from St. John’s United Methodist Church in Lubbock, TX. Rev. Bill Martin, retired cler­gy and mem­ber of St. John’s stat­ed upon the pas­sage of the res­o­lu­tion, ​“We in Texas who oppose cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment deeply appre­ci­ate this prophet­ic wit­ness from The United Methodist Church. It rep­re­sents a direct appli­ca­tion of the Church’s affir­ma­tion that we ​‘can­not accept ret­ri­bu­tion or social vengeance as a rea­son for tak­ing human life’ and our belief that the death penal­ty ​‘vio­lates our deep­est belief in God as the Creator and the Redeemer of humankind.’”

This res­o­lu­tion was devel­oped in part due to the inten­si­ty of which Texas uses the death penal­ty with­out regard to the many prob­lems with­in the death penal­ty sys­tem: prob­lems of wrong­ful con­vic­tion, poor rep­re­sen­ta­tion, the arbi­trary nature in which it is imposed, and the great expense it rep­re­sents to the state of Texas. The Rev. Julius Trimble of the East Ohio Conference and com­mit­tee chair pre­sent­ing the Resolution to the General Conference del­e­gates, also point­ed out that in Texas the Governor can­not com­mute a sen­tence with­out the vote of the Board of Pardons and Parole; and the spe­cif­ic event of Governor Perry, after a vote from the Board on com­mut­ing the death sen­tence of a men­tal­ly ill inmate, deny­ing that vote and pro­ceed­ing with the execution.

Vicki McCuistion, pro­gram direc­tor of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and mem­ber of Wimberley United Methodist Church hailed the deci­sion of the General Conference, ​“The pas­sage of this res­o­lu­tion sends a strong mes­sage to Texas and our state offi­cials that our exces­sive exe­cu­tion pol­i­cy is rec­og­nized as extreme and in need of great reform by the del­e­gates of the United Methodist Church from the United States and around the world and must be reeval­u­at­ed soon­er rather than later.”

The General Conference of the United Methodist Church is held every 4 years with del­e­gates from the US and around the world to deter­mine the busi­ness and direc­tion of the United Methodist Church.

The text of the res­o­lu­tion fol­lows:
Texas Death Penalty (81149-C1-R9999)

To Be Added to The Book of Resolutions:

Whereas, The United Methodist Church strong­ly oppos­es cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, and

Whereas, in the state of Texas over 400 per­sons have been put to death since the state resumed exe­cu­tions in 1982;

• among the per­sons exe­cut­ed since 1982 at least six were men­tal­ly retard­ed, at least twen­ty suf­fered from men­tal ill­ness, and thir­teen were juve­niles when their crimes were com­mit­ted;
• among those exe­cut­ed eighty-three African Americans were put to death for crimes against white vic­tims, and only one white per­son was exe­cut­ed for crimes against African Americans;
• eight per­sons sen­tenced to die have lat­er been proven inno­cent and removed from death row;
• cap­i­tal tri­als have at times been char­ac­ter­ized by ​“unre­li­able wit­ness­es, lack of evi­dence, incor­rect experts, offi­cial mis­con­duct, and inad­e­quate defense attor­neys”;
• the Innocence Project of Texas has point­ed to the like­li­hood that one or more inno­cent per­sons have been exe­cut­ed; and

Whereas, over 250 orga­ni­za­tions of all kinds, includ­ing reli­gious, civic, polit­i­cal, legal, and human­i­tar­i­an groups, have offi­cial­ly called either for a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions or for the abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty in Texas, and

Whereas, at least ten major news­pa­pers in Texas have endorsed either a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions or the abo­li­tion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the state,

Therefore, be it resolved, that the 2008 General Conference of The United Methodist Church, meet­ing in Fort Worth, Texas,

Express its deep­est appre­ci­a­tion to all those orga­ni­za­tions and indi­vid­u­als in the state of Texas who have valiant­ly strug­gled and con­tin­ue to strug­gle for a more humane soci­ety in which the death penal­ty is rare or non-existent.

Call upon the Texas Legislature either to abol­ish the death penal­ty com­plete­ly or to stop exe­cu­tions in the state until such time as all cap­i­tal cas­es can be tried in a com­plete­ly equitable way,

Call upon the Texas Pardon and Parole Board and the Governor to com­mute the sen­tences of per­sons cur­rent­ly on death row to life in prison with­out parole or to life in prison.

Instruct the Secretary of the General Conference to have copies of this res­o­lu­tion sent imme­di­ate­ly to all mem­bers of the Texas Legislature, to each mem­ber of the Pardon and Parole Board, to the Governor of Texas, to the Texas Conference of Churches, and to the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Source: By Texas Abolition Blog