RESOLUTION OPPOSING CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AND RACISM IN SENTENCING

Adopted by the Governing Board, May 26, 1988

In 1968 the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. declared its opposition to capital punishment, reasoning in part that "economically poor defendants, particularly members of racial minorities, are more likely to be executed than others because they cannot afford exhaustive legal defenses."  In 1976 the NCC reasserted "the conviction expressed in the policy statement of 1968 that the death penalty is wrong," observing that "the ultimate sanction continues to fall more heavily on minorities and those who cannot afford extensive legal defense."  In 1979 the NCC again acted against capital punishment, asserting that "the penalty of death should not be imposed, in any case, on any person as punishment for wrong-doing, nor be apart of any state or federal penal code."  In its agenda for action it called for revision "of criminal codes and their application to exclude race, class, and sex bias—including . . . the abolition of capital punishment."  At the Governing Board meeting in May, 1987, the Commission on Justice and Liberation brought an Issue Paper on "Racism and the Death Penalty" to the Unity and Relationships Clusterand distributed Amnesty International’s report, United States of America: The Death Penalty, to the full Governing Board in order to bring new visibility to the issue.

Many member communions have adopted policies in opposition to the death penalty and have further been involved in the efforts of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty to eliminate state-sanctioned executions in the United States.

There are at present 2,048 men and women on the death rows of 34 states; nearly half of them are people of color.  Forty-five of the 98 people executed between 1977 (when executions resumed in the United States after a ten year moratorium) and April 1988 were Black or Hispanic; 84 of the 99 victims were white, and no whites were executed for killing a minority person.*  In 1987 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in McCleskey v. Kemp, that the statistical evidence of racial bias against Black defendants and against those whose victims were white is not a violation of the 8th or 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, and that racial disparities were not sufficient to render the law unconstitutional.

Legislation to provide for the review of elements of racial injustice in capital sentencing was introduced in 1988 in the United State House of Representatives.**  Among other features, the proposed legislation makes it unlawful to impose or implement a death sentence in a racially discriminatory manner and establishes the level of proof required to make a claim of discrimination.  It also require states to maintain data on the charging, disposition, and sentencing patterns for all cases of death-eligible crimes.  While work goes forward on a number of strategies for entirely eliminating the imposition of death sentences, this legislation is viewed as an appropriate interim remedy, although not a solution, to the injustice of state-sanctioned executions.

In light of its long-standing opposition to capital punishment, and recognizing the necessity for making incremental efforts to eliminate the death penalty, the National Council of Churches in the U.S.A. reaffirms its opposition to the death penalty and supports legislation that seeks to eliminate racially biased sentencing.  It requests theGeneral Secretary to communicate the concerns of this resolution to members of the United States Congress.

The National Council of Churches also calls upon its member communions, and local and regional ecumenical bodies, to:

1. inform themselves on the current efforts to abolish the death penalty in the United States, and to encourage members to support the passage of this specific legislation as an interim remedy.

2. communicate their support of this legislation to elected representatives in the United States Congress and in their individual states;

3. use a variety of other channels of communication to interpret the concerns expressed in this resolution to those beyond the church community;

4. participate in the work of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and its religious-community working group.

The National Council of Churches further expresses its pastoral concern for victims of crimes, for those who are under death sentences and their families, and for all whose lives are affected by crime and the criminal justice system.

* Data from NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc., 4/1/88.

**H.R.4442, the Racial Justice Act.

National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.

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