Capital punishment opposed - News

Christian Century, June 16, 1993

Families of murder victims are undertaking a two-week Journey of Hope to oppose the death penalty, leading rallies and educational events in more than 20 Midwestern cities and towns. The Journey of Hope started in the Chicago area on June 4 and will end in Indianapolis on June 20. The series of events was organized by Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation and is sponsored by church organizations, social justice groups and a police association. "Through our own painful experience, we have learned that vengeance is not the answer," declared Marie Deans, founder of MVFR.

"With this journey, we hope to begin a dialogue that will lead to a real solution," said Bill Pelke of MVFR. "For too long, victims' families and death penalty opponents have been positioned on opposing sides." Now they hope to join together in a common cause to "reduce the violence in our communities."

Pelke, a featured participant in Journey of Hope and one of its key organizers, has firsthand experience of criminal violence and its aftermath. In a widely publicized 1985 case Pelke's grandmother, who had worked informally with inner-city youth for many years, was murdered in Gary, Indiana. She was struck on the head and stabbed to death after a group of teenage girls had appeared on her doorstep requesting Bible lessons. One of the girls, 15-year-old Paula Cooper, was tried, convicted and sentenced to death. After what he describes as a "conversion experience," Pelke began to speak out against the death penalty and in favor of clemency for Cooper. In 1989 Cooper's sentence was changed to 60 years' imprisonment.

Other participants in Journey of Hope include Bernice King, daughter of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.; Ronald Hampton, a director of the National Black Police Association; and Randall Dale Adams, a former death-row prisoner whose story was told in the documentary film The Thin Blue Line. Sponsors of Journey of Hope include Amnesty International, American Friends Service Committee--Great Lakes Region, Catholics Against Capital Punishment, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Church of the Brethren, the Mennonite Central Committee, the National Council of Churches, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the National Black Police Association.

Meanwhile, a group opposed to the death penalty wants Pope John Paul II, when he comes to Denver this summer for an international gathering of young people, to denounce executions of U.S. criminals who were convicted of committing murder before they reached the age of 18. "The young people from foreign countries will be surprised, if not astounded, that the United States even has capital punishment," commented Jim Sunderland, a Jesuit priest and director of the Colorado Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. Many of those coming to Denver for the Roman Catholic Church's World Youth Day August 11-15 are from European and other countries where there is no capital punishment, explained Sunderland, who works as prison chaplain for the Denver Archdiocese.

Thirty-six men are on death row in the U.S. for murders they were convicted of committing before they were 18, said Sunderland. The oldest, 34-year-old Jose High, has been awaiting execution in Georgia for 15 years, said Pam Rutter, a program coordinator for the Washington-based National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. She went on to say that two people now under age 18, as well as 13 people under age 21, are awaiting execution, and that during the past 20 years five people convicted of committing murder before they were 18 have been executed.