Our ranks include students, lawyers, nuns and journalists who, though they may disagree on a whole range of issues, nevertheless stand united in the belief that state-sanctioned murder is wrong.
Members of the ACADP hold a vigil at every execution, rain or shine. Our numbers include average people, as well as more distinquished folks whose presence is noteworthy, as well as newsworthy. These people are there for personal reasons but also because they represent the concerns of hundreds - sometimes thousands - of others for whom they speak. Some of these include: Episcopal Bishop Larry Maze, Methodist Bishop Kenneth Hicks, Joan Pytlik of the Catholic Diocese of Little Rock, Imam of the Muslim community of Little Rock, Johnny Hasan, and the Rev. Bryan Fulwider, on behalf of the Arkansas Interfaith Conference. The Interfaith Conference, in turn, represents some 12 religious denominations opposed to the death penalty: African Methodist Episcopal (AME), AME Zion, Arkansas Presbytery, Arkansas Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Catholic Diocese of Little Rock, Christian Church (Disciples), Christian Methodist Episcopal, Episcopal Diocese or Arkansas, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Arkansas, Greek Orthodox Church, Muslim American Community of Arkansas, Presbytery of the Pines, United Universalist Church, United Church of Christ, and the United Methodist Church.
While I am glad you gave our vigil some mention, it is unfortunate none of the fine statements were quoted. I believe your readers have a right to know not only who is against the death penalty, but why. Our reasons are not what some pro-death penalty advocates assume. We do not care more about the criminals than the victims or their families.
We are not unaware of the horror of the crimes for which those executed committed, and we certainly don't want them to go unpunished. We are against the death penalty:
* Because the act of the state must be distinguished from the act of the criminal. No matter how inhumane his crime, the state, which should reflect our highest and best principles, which should act on reason not emotion, should never act in any way that violates the las of humanity, democracy and dur process.
* Because life in prison without parole would punish and deter,
* Because, we are alone as a country in this practice, but maintain a high violence rate nevertheless. At a time in the world's history when countries are moving inward universal human rights and abolition of the death penalty, we ramain the last industrialized nation to continue the practice. The only other country until recently was South Africa.
* Because it is torture, plain and simple: the ultimate cruel and unusual punishment.
* Because if new evidence is found exonerating the convicted criminal, it will be too late to do anything about it: We can and do execute innocent people.
* Because death sentences are sought and applied in an arbitrary fashion, based on the race, class and gender of the victim, the defendant and the jurors.
* Because it is only another act of violence that ironically is supposed to prevent violence. And there are those, of course, who think that, barring self-defense, taking human life is just plain immoral.