Death Penalty Reform I: Abolition

WHEREAS the judgment of Cain (Genesis 4:9-15), The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew

            5:38-39), the woman caught in adultery (John 8:3-11) each repudiate capital punishment.

WHEREAS “The United Methodist Church has passed resolutions opposing the death penalty

            since 1976.  (see Roger Thomas, Death In Pennsylvania: James V. Bennett Revisited)

WHEREAS The Social Principles of The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church – 1996 specifies; “We oppose capital punishment and urge its elimination from all criminal codes.”

WHEREAS “There is something inherently disgusting about the death penalty that leads to excesses. Small wonder that prison wardens are in the forefront of those who want to abolish capital punishment.”

WHEREAS The actual use of the death penalty has declined. “Since capital punishment was reimposed in 1977, there have been 480,000 killings in our society and 629 executions. That’s 1/12^th of 1%.”

WHEREAS “Today more than 3700 condemned people wait in death cells, while their attorneys maneuver through the appellate process. It is safe to say that most of them will be reprieved or their convictions set aside because they were denied a fair trial.”

WHEREAS most of the countries in the world have abolished the death penalty. The United Nations, the American and Pennsylvania Bar Associations, The American Medical Association, and virtually every denomination oppose the death penalty.

WHEREAS we find ourselves increasingly appalled by the nature of the penalty we are responsible for carrying out. It is based on vengeance and retribution which contradicts Deuteronomy 32:35, Romans 12:19, 1 Corinthians 6:1-7, and 1 Peter 2:21-23. It neither compensates the victim nor provides closure for the survivors.

WHEREAS the Pennsylvania legislature is presently considering Senator Helfrick’s “Senate Bill No. 23 Session of 2001, Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, prohibiting imposition of the death penalty.”

WHEREAS the Pennsylvania legislature is presently considering Senator Helfrick’s Senate Bill No. 24 Session of 2001, which proposes the repeal of the death penalty as a sentencing option.

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the Western Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church goes on record supporting the abolition of the death penalty as a sentencing option in our Commonwealth.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Executive Director of A United Methodist Witness in Pennsylvania shall report this action to the Chairperson of the Judiciary Committee of both the House of Representatives and the Senate of the Pennsylvania General Assembly.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that A United Methodist Witness in Pennsylvania, the Holy Boldness Mission Network, the clergy and the laity should provide testimony, support and encouragement to the members of the Pennsylvania legislature urging passage of Senate Bills 23 and 24 of Session 2001.

Death Penalty Reform II: Moratorium

WHEREAS Numbers 35:12, Leviticus 19:15, Deuteronomy 1:17, and Joshua 20:2-6 charge the entire community with protecting the accused, and adjudicating matters fairly.

WHEREAS as early as October 1993, the US House Judiciary Committee on Civil and Constitutional Rights determined that 77 people had been released from death row with evidence of their innocence. Two were women. That study looked back only as far as 1970. 23 instances were identified where innocent people had actually been executed between 1900 and 1985. These numbers are now higher.

WHEREAS direct appeals, collateral appeals, and federal appeals from death sentences tend to last some seven years, and often cost $3.2 million beyond the ordinary cost of imprisonment.

WHEREAS 13 of the 25 people who had been sentenced to death in Illinois between 1977 and 1999 were innocent of the crime for which they had been sentenced. On February 2, 2000 the Governor placed a moratorium on executions in that state. The Chief Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court supported the Governor’s decision.

WHEREAS Pennsylvania’s Senate Judiciary Committee subsequently conducted hearings regarding such a moratorium, and found 67% support for the idea. Petitions bearing thousands of signatures have been presented to the Pennsylvania Senate calling for a moratorium on executions.

WHEREAS Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Erie, Rouseville (Venango County), Harrisburg, York, Gettysburg and Shippensburg have each passed resolutions calling for a moratorium. All of these resolutions have passed with a vote of 75% or better.

WHEREAS Senator Helfrick has introduced Senate Bill No. 25 Session of 2001, which provides; “No execution of a defendant shall take place for two years. A commission on the death penalty shall be created to study the law that provides for the death penalty and the administration of the death penalty in this Commonwealth. The commission shall make recommendations for amendments to the death penalty law to provide assurances that; (1) defendants who are sentenced to death are in fact guilty of first degree murder; (2) defendants in death penalty cases are provided adequate and experienced counsel and adequate resources for the defense of their cases at the trial, appellate and post-conviction stages; (3) race does not play an impermissible role in determining which defendants are sentenced to death; and (4) death penalty cases are handled similarly by all district attorneys throughout this Commonwealth.”

WHEREAS the moratorium and study proposed by Senator Helfrick in Senate Bill 25 Session of 2001 would do much to assure that any capital punishment system in Pennsylvania was actually effective.

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the Western Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church goes on record supporting a moratorium on executions and a study of the capital punishment system in our Commonwealth.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Executive Director of A United Methodist Witness in Pennsylvania shall report this action to the Chairperson of the Judiciary Committee of the Senate of the Pennsylvania General Assembly.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that A United Methodist Witness in Pennsylvania, the Holy Boldness Mission Network, the clergy and the laity provide testimony, support and encouragement to the members of the Pennsylvania legislature urging passage of Senate Bill 25 Session 2001.

Death Penalty Reform III: Mental Retardation

WHEREAS 12 states with death penalty laws forbid the execution of people who are mentally retarded, yet 34 such people have been executed since 1977.

WHEREAS Two Pennsylvania death row inmates have had their sentences commuted upon evidence of mental retardation. Both had been tried, convicted, sentenced and been incarcerated for years.

WHEREAS Senator Helfrick has introduced Senate Bill 26 Session 2001, which provides; “A sentence of death shall not be imposed upon any person who establishes that he was, at the time of the offense, a person who has significantly sub-average intellectual functioning as evidenced by an intelligence quotient of 70 or below.”

WHEREAS Senate Bill 26 Session 2001 would provide positive guidance to prosecutors, courts and juries regarding the accused’s ability to “appreciate the criminality of his conduct.”

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the Western Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church goes on record supporting the protection of mentally retarded people in capital cases in our Commonwealth.

Death Penalty Reform IV: Minors

WHEREAS only six countries in the world execute children. The United States leads the pack. We have killed 346 of them. 69% were black, and 6% were from other minorities.

WHEREAS 13 people have been executed for juvenile crimes since 1976. 74 more are on death row now. 67% of the people executed during the 1990s for crimes they committed as children were black.

WHEREAS the US Supreme Court has held that the execution of people as young as 16 is not cruel or unusual punishment, and sets no age limit on how young the offender may be. Mississippi recently prosecuted 13 year olds. Florida is prosecuting a 7 year old. Pennsylvania is prosecuting an 11-year-old girl who is both mentally retarded and physically disabled.

WHEREAS there is a rebuttable presumption of incapacity for people under the age of 18. They are presumed not to understand the long-term consequences of their actions.

WHEREAS Senator Helfrick has introduced Senate Bill 27 Session 2001, which provides; “A sentence of death shall not be imposed upon a person who was 17 years of age or younger at the time of the commission of the offense.”

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the Western Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church goes on record opposing the .prosecution of minors for capital crimes.

Death Penalty Reform V: Family Wishes

WHEREAS Numbers 35:19 provides that the victim’s next of kin is personally responsible for executing the offender. Matthew 5:21-26 provides that they are responsible for reconciling with the offender. It is not the duty of the Commonwealth.

WHEREAS not all families seek vengeance against the offender. “In recent years, a new feeling has swept the land. Abolitionist groups against the death penalty have sprung up all over. And murder victims' families are stepping forward to say forgiveness, not execution, is the solution to the healing of wounds.”

WHEREAS this was the express purpose of the Journey of Hope which campaigned across Pennsylvania in August, 2000. Families of victims campaigned to demand a halt to executions. Execution is not sufficient for closure

WHEREAS Senator Helfrick has introduced Senate Bill 28 Session 2001, which provides; “The wishes of the victim's surviving spouse, adult child or parent that the sentence of death not be imposed” shall be considered a mitigating circumstance in any capital case.

WHEREAS Senator Helfrick has introduced Senate Bill 29 Session 2001, which provides; “In any case where the defendant is charged with murder of the first degree, the prosecutor shall not seek nor the sentencing court impose a sentence of death where the victim's surviving spouse, adult child or parent indicates, at any stage of the proceedings, that he or she does not want the death penalty to be imposed.”

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the Western Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church goes on record supporting the right of the victim’s family to be heard regarding execution.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Executive Director of A United Methodist Witness in Pennsylvania shall report this action to the Chairperson of the Judiciary Committee of the Senate of the Pennsylvania General Assembly.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that A United Methodist Witness in Pennsylvania, the Holy Boldness Mission Network, the clergy and the laity provide testimony, support and encouragement to the members of the Pennsylvania legislature urging passage of Senate Bills 28 and 29 of Session 2001.

Death Penalty Reform VI: DNA

WHEREAS deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) testing now provides critical forensic information regarding guilt or innocence. It gives accurate identification 99.9% of the time.

WHEREAS Pennsylvania already collects DNA from offenders under 37 CPSA 59. It shares this data with the FBI for the explicit purpose of gathering “exculpatory or inculpatory evidence.”

WHEREAS arrest warrants are now being issued “not against a named suspect but against a specific genetic code.”

WHEREAS prisoners in 48 states do not have the right to a simple DNA test that could prove their innocence. Pennsylvania is one of them. These tests cost some $5,000, and only New York and Illinois are willing to fund them, even on appeal. This makes forensic evidence available to one side but not the other.

WHEREAS Senator Greenleaf introduced Senate Bill 589 Session 2001, which allows DNA evidence to be introduced regardless of the date of conviction. It also assigns the cost of the test to the Commonwealth only when the prisoner is indigent.

WHEREAS Senate Bill 589 Session 2001 would simply make the existing information, and the crime scene evidence, admissible in court. It would be consistent with a bill submitted by US Senator Patrick Leahy to allow DNA testing of death row inmates who want to prove their innocence.

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the Western Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church goes on record supporting the admission of DNA test results by trial and appellate courts in our Commonwealth.

Death Penalty Reform VII: Full Jury Information

WHEREAS Pennsylvania does not give the jury essential pieces of information. We are one of the few states that do not offer parole to inmates with life sentences. In Pennsylvania, "Life means life!" Unfortunately, neither the public nor the juries are told this.

WHEREAS under current Pennsylvania practice, life imprisonment is not explained to the jury unless the prosecutor urges execution because of the accused's future dangerousness. If the prosecutor does not use that specific argument, the jury is not told that the accused will never be eligible for parole. The prosecutor controls what the jury is told.

WHEREAS jurors have often complained to both judges and counsel, that the only reason they found for the death sentence was to prevent the offender from ever getting loose on the streets again. They were concerned about "revolving door" paroles. Their concern was for public safety. If they had known that the offender could never be paroled, they would have found for life imprisonment.

WHEREAS Senator Greenleaf introduced Senate Bill 1510 Session 2000, which provided; “The court shall instruct the jury that life imprisonment means life in prison without any consideration for parole. The court shall further instruct the jury that the Governor, upon the unanimous recommendation of the Board of Pardons, has the power to grant a pardon or to commute a sentence of death or life imprisonment.”

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the Western Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church goes on record supporting full jury instructions.

Death Penalty Reform VIII: Race

WHEREAS Exodus 23:6 specifically mandates; “You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in his suit. Keep far from a false charge, and do not slay the innocent.” Exodus 23:9 mandates; “You shall not oppress the stranger.”

WHEREAS Our Book of Resolutions, p. 503-504, follows our Social Principles:

"The death penalty also falls unfairly and unequally upon an outcast minority. Recent methods for selecting the few persons sentenced to die from among the larger number who are convicted of comparable offenses have not cured the arbitrariness and discrimination that have historically marked the administration of capital punishment in this country.”

WHEREAS 96% of the studies show a race-of-victim, or race-of-defendant discrimination. 83% of death penalty verdicts involve white victims, even though only 50% of the murder victims are white. The race of the victim influenced the likelihood of being charged with capital murder, or receiving the death penalty, 82% of the time. Our population is 13% black, yet 139 of the 225 (62%) people on Pennsylvania's death row are black. 40% of the people executed since 1977 were black.

WHEREAS When white and negro co-defendants are given separate trials for the same offense, the white tends to be sentenced to life imprisonment or a term of years, while the negro is given the death penalty.

WHEREAS The1994 Crime Control Act speaks directly to the issue of race. "Before making a sentencing determination, the judge (must) instruct the jury that its determination may not involve consideration of race, color, religious beliefs, national origin, or sex of either the defendant or the victim.” Pennsylvania has never adopted this statute.

WHEREAS current law prohibits the introduction of information regarding racial tendencies in capital cases unless the accused could prove that racial prejudice affected his specific case. Since testimony on racial prejudice is almost impossible to obtain, this burden of proof is almost impossible to meet.

WHEREAS The Racially Discriminatory Capital Sentencing Act provides; “No person shall be put to death in the execution of a sentence that was imposed based on race. A finding that race was the basis of the decision to seek the death sentence may be established if the court finds that race was a statistically significant factor in decisions to seek or to impose the sentence of death.” The American Bar Association has endorsed this Act, but it has never been adopted in Pennsylvania.

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the Western Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church goes on record supporting adoption of the 1994 Crime Control Act by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that that the Western Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church goes on record supporting adoption of the Racially Discriminatory Capital Sentencing Act by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Death Penalty Reform IX: Legal Competence

WHEREAS In February 1997, the American Bar Association concluded that the administration of the death penalty was a "haphazard maze of unfair practices," and called for a national moratorium. The Pennsylvania Bar Association supports the ABA’s position. 90% of the people accused of capital crimes cannot afford their own attorney. They are provided with court appointed lawyers who are often just getting started. Since the clients tend to be paupers, the lawyers work almost “pro bono.” In one example, the attorney was paid a total of $800.

WHEREAS An embarrassing number of lawyers whose clients are sentenced to death are ultimately driven from the bar for incompetence. Court appointed lawyers who have represented death row inmates are six times more likely to be disciplined by the Bar Association or the Supreme Court. Some 80% of these lawyers are ultimately disbarred or suspended

WHEREAS The American Bar Association Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Counsel in Death Penalty Cases was published in February 1989. They require previous hands-on experience with both the trial and sentencing phases of the proceedings, ready access to assisting attorneys, support staff, investigators and independent experts, and selection by independent appointing entities and not by judges. Pennsylvania attempted to meet these standards, at the appellate level, in the Unitary Review of Death Penalty Cases Statute. Unfortunately this statute has been suspended.

WHEREAS Senator Greenleaf introduced Senate Bill 869 Session 2001, which creates a Capital Representation Resource Center to address these very issues.

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the Western Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church goes on record supporting a statute that would require attorneys at all phases of capital cases to meet the ABA Guidelines for Appointment and Performance.

Death Penalty Reform X: Discovery

WHEREAS Pennsylvania will not consider any information which is discovered more than a year after a death sentence is imposed. This limit is not imposed on other offenses.

WHEREAS this statute of limitations was imposed to reduce the repetitious trials and appeals which were frequently taken in capital cases

WHEREAS information, forensic tests, and evidence is often learned well after the trial is concluded.

WHEREAS genuinely new information should be admissible prior to execution in capital cases.

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the Western Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church goes on record supporting a statute that would allow the consideration of genuinely new information at any time in capital cases.

These resolutions were adopted by the Western Pennsylvania

Conference of the United Methodist Church on June 7, 2001.