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Home | News > Time has come to abolish death penalty in Illinois

Time has come to abolish death penalty in Illinois

11/04/2010
By Bishop Hee-Soo Jung

This year marks the tenth anniversary of a moratorium on the death penalty in Illinois. This moratorium was enacted due to false convictions and an unjust legal process. As a public policy, it is clear that the Illinois death penalty system is still broken with little hope of being fixed. This policy risks executing the innocent, does not help murder victims’ families, and ignores the promise of forgiveness and restorative justice as revealed in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

As Christians and United Methodists, we have long opposed the death penalty, and the position of the United Methodist Church is clear:

The United Methodist Book of Discipline, Paragraph 164 G

We believe the death penalty denies the power of Christ to redeem, restore and transform all human beings. The United Methodist Church is deeply concerned about crime throughout the world and the value of any life taken by a murder or homicide. We believe all human life is sacred and created by God and therefore, we must see all human life as  significant and valuable. When governments implement the death penalty (capital punishment), then the life of the convicted person is devalued and all possibility of change in that person’s life ends. We believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and that the possibility of reconciliation with Christ comes through repentance. This gift of reconciliation is offered to all individuals without exception and gives all life new dignity and sacredness. For this reason, we oppose the death penalty (capital punishment) and urge its elimination from all criminal codes.

The death penalty goes against our deepest theological convictions that every human life is sacred and that the gift of forgiveness is available to all without exception. Christ calls us to practice restorative instead of retributive justice. Years of study on the death penalty have also  revealed practical reasons to oppose its continued implementation. It is often unjustly applied, leading to wrongful convictions. In Illinois alone, 20 men have been exonerated from death row after evidence of their innocence emerged. That is the second-highest exoneration rate in the nation. In addition, murder victims’ families have said that the death penalty legal process is a tortuous system for them as well, ultimately doing more harm than good. Even as we spend millions maintaining the death penalty system, programs and services that help victims’ families and aid in crime prevention are underfunded. The death penalty is also not an effective deterrent for violent crime. Overall, it fails as a public policy and is in opposition to our faith.

The time is now to urge our lawmakers to finally abolish the death penalty in Illinois. We pray that our local congregations will oppose the death penalty and work toward a system that honors Christ’s call to restorative justice. We pray for victims, offenders and our community, that all might find healing and forgiveness.

Resources, including films, sample letters to send to lawmakers, fact sheets on the death penalty, and information about hosting a death row exoneree or murder victim family member to hear their personal journey with the death penalty, are available for congregations through the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (ICADP) at www.icadp.org, or by contacting Colleen Cunningham at (314) 249-1159.