U.S. religious leaders have in recent weeks taken outspoken stands in two high-profile crime cases, condemning what they say is excessively vindictive punishment.
Daniel Buechlein, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Indianapolis, Indiana, and Bishop Frank Griswold, presiding bishop of the Episcopal (Anglican) Church have criticized the planned execution of Timothy McVeigh, scheduled for May 16 in Indiana. McVeigh has been found guilty of the 1995 bombing of a federal office building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in which 168 people were killed—one of the most highly publicized crimes in U.S. history. McVeigh will die by lethal injection.
In the state of Florida, a group of Episcopal bishops have publicly criticized a sentence for 14-year-old Lionel Tate, who was sentenced in March to life imprisonment without parole for beating a six-year-old girl to death.
The bishops have asked Florida's governor, Jeb Bush, brother of President George W. Bush, to consider clemency in the case. Lionel Tate was 12 years old when he committed the crime, which drew wide attention to the problems of juvenile crime.
In both the McVeigh and Tate cases, the religious leaders have condemned the crimes, but have said the punishments reveal deep problems in the justice system.
"It's hard to believe this happens in the U.S." Bishop Leo Frade of the Episcopal Diocese of southeast Florida , told ENI, referring to Tate's sentence. "We have no credibility in the world when this happens."
Archbishop Buechlein's condemnation of the McVeigh sentence stems from the Catholic Church's long-standing opposition to the death penalty, which is legal in many US states and has been applied with increasing frequency in recent years. The McVeigh case is the first execution in almost 40 years resulting from federal, rather than state, charges.
More than 580 people have been executed in the United States since 1976, over half of them since 1992.
Though most Americans support capital punishment, recent public opinion surveys indicate that support for the death penalty is on the decline.
Acknowledging the heinous nature of McVeigh's crime, Archbishop Buechlein said it was understandable that many people felt that if anyone deserved to be executed, it was Timothy McVeigh, who had shown little, if any, remorse for the bombing.
But, basing his opposition to the death penalty on church teaching, the archbishop said: "The good of society requires that we rise to the challenge of a measured and larger vision. The death penalty seems to fan the flame of revenge, rather than foster a genuine sense of justice in society."
Bishop Griswold also condemned the execution, pointing out that the Episcopal Church and other religious organizations had long opposed the death penalty. But his statement, issued on April 19, stressed what he called an appalling atmosphere surrounding the execution. Some merchants in the city of Terre Haute, Indiana—where the execution will take place—are selling T-shirts to commemorate the event.
Adding to the controversy is the decision by Attorney General John Ashcroft to allow the survivors and members of the victims' families to watch the execution on closed-circuit television.
Reports of such activities "conjure up images of executions in the Middle Ages and Roman times when these events were public entertainment," Bishop Griswold said. "Such an atmosphere demeans our judicial system as it promotes frenzy and revenge. A public ritual of death can only coarsen our spirits and deaden our sensibilities.
"Though undoubtedly Timothy McVeigh committed one of the most heinous crimes in the history of our country, I fear that execution as spectacle can only poison the soul of our nation."
In the Tate case, Bishop Frade and six other Florida bishops said that they were not excusing the action of the youth, who was sentenced for killing six-year-old Tiffany Eunick in 1999. Lionel Tate's lawyers had argued that the death was an accident and that the boy had been imitating professional wrestlers.
The Tate crime and his sentence of life imprisonment without parole have highlighted a controversy over the prosecution of children who commit violent crimes.
Despite public outcry about a reported rise in both the number and the degree of brutality of violent crimes by juveniles, a recent survey shows that most Americans believe that children who commit murders should be tried and sentenced as juveniles, not as adults.
In their letter to Governor Bush, the Episcopal bishops said they believed the "judgment is disproportionate in the case of a minor, and the punishment is cruel and unusual."
"We are appealing to your humanity for a less harsh treatment of this young boy. The eyes of the world are upon us, and by exercising clemency we would be demonstrating our ability to work toward redemption and rehabilitation rather than vengeance."
In a letter sent on April 6 to Bishop Frade, the governor's office said merely that Jeb Bush would consider the clemency request and that the governor had said that Lionel Tate should not be housed with adult offenders.
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"Sending him [Lionel Tate] to life without parole is barbaric," Bishop Frade said in an interview.
He added that it was important for his church to take a strong public position on the case, joining predominantly black churches in Florida that had also asked for clemency for the youth.
"I have not found any person in my church—black, white, Hispanic—who does not think this is a tragic decision," Bishop Frade told ENI. "We're filling our jails with children and teenagers, and unfortunately, most are black or Hispanic."
Bishop Frade compared the situation to 19th-century America, and said the church must work toward reforms to reduce juvenile incarceration. "Our system," he said, "cannot be based on vengeance."
Books & Culture examined retribution in its September/October 2000 issue. In a later issue, Virginia Stem Owens's "Death and Texas" discussed how a "Community Conversation" about the death penalty turned into an anti-conversation carried on by an anti-community.
Earlier Christianity Today articles about criminal justice include:
For a historical perspective, see Christian History magazine's article, "Brutality Behind Bars | Women's prisons were hellish places before Elizabeth Fry started working there."
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