Post by sclcookie on Jun 6, 2006 1:13:09 GMT -5
As this is not posted on the website of the Lynchburg News & Advance where it appeared as the weekly Pastoral Letter on June 3, 2006 we are making it available on the VADP website’s News and Articles under Percy Levar Walton who is scheduled to be executed this Thursday, June 8, 2006.
Who would Jesus execute?
Religion Column in the Lynchburg News & Advance by Anne Gibbons
Ms. Gibbons is the associate chaplain of Lynchburg College and the director of SERVE
June 3, 2006
I have never met Percy Walton and I didn’t know he even existed until a few weeks ago. However, in a few days he could be put to death in my name and in the name of all the residents of the Commonwealth of Virginia unless pressure is brought to bear on Governor Tim Kaine to stay the execution.
People of faith may differ on the morality of the death penalty in the first place but Percy Walton’s case deserves thoughtful consideration regardless of one’s position regarding capital punishment.
Walton did plead guilty to four counts of capital murder for the killings of three different people and sentenced to death in 1997. Such heinous crimes warrant punishment and life imprisonment without parole is one option. Given the rest of Percy’s story, it is perhaps the most just option as well.
According to court records Percy Walton was 18 years old at the time of his crime. Walton suffers from schizophrenia and his illness has gone untreated for over a decade. Over the past several years prison personnel, including a psychiatrist, have described him as being “floridly psychotic” and severely mentally retarded.
Five of the most recent grants of clemency to death row inmates nationally have been based on the inmate’s extreme mental illness. These include Calvin Swann, who was granted clemency in 1999 by then Governor Jim Gilmore. Clemency in these cases does not indicate a judicial system full of bleeding heart liberals but rather a court’s objective understanding of the severe consequences of full blown mental illness and the need for treatment and compassion rather than vengeance and condemnation.
For those of us who oppose the death penalty regardless of the criminal’s mental state, Percy Walton’s story is somewhat irrelevant. Some believe “Thou Shalt not Kill” and “Love your Enemy” and “Forgive seventy times seventy” actually applies to all capital offenses. Life imprisonment without parole offers a just and merciful consequence.
But even for those of us who feel the death penalty can be justified, the psychological profiles of particular inmates should give us cause to pause. WWJE? Who would Jesus execute? A mentally retarded, severely psychotic man who shows no real understanding of the crime he committed nor the ramifications of his own execution? I think not.
For those of us who feel called to try and spare the life of Percy Walton while ensuring that he does remain incarcerated without parole, there is still time to take action before Thursday. The office of Governor Timothy Kaine can be reached in Richmond at (804) 786-2211. Email messages can be sent via the Governor’s website at www.governor.virginia.gov/AboutTheGovernor/contactGovernor.cfm
And regardless of our position and our conscience, we can all pray the words of Sister Helen Prejean, a Roman Catholic nun who is committed to a ministry that addresses not only the death row inmates and their families but their victims and families as well.
A Prayer to Abolish the Death Penalty
God of Compassion,
You let your rain fall on the just and the unjust.
Expand and deepen our hearts
so that we may love as You love,
even those among us
who have caused the greatest pain by taking life.
For there is in our land a great cry for vengeance
as we fill up death rows and kill the killers
in the name of justice, in the name of peace.
Jesus, our brother,
you suffered execution at the hands of the state
but you did not let hatred overcome you.
Help us to reach out to victims of violence
so that our enduring love may help them heal.
Holy Spirit of God,
You strengthen us in the struggle for justice.
Help us to work tirelessly
for the abolition of state-sanctioned death
and to renew our society in its very heart
so that violence will be no more. Amen.
--Sister Helen Prejean, C.S.J.
Used with permission
Jack Payden-Travers, Director
Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
P.O. Box 4804
Charlottesville, VA 22905
888-567-VADP (office)
434-960-4673 (Jack)
www.vadp.org
jack@vadp.org
Who would Jesus execute?
Religion Column in the Lynchburg News & Advance by Anne Gibbons
Ms. Gibbons is the associate chaplain of Lynchburg College and the director of SERVE
June 3, 2006
I have never met Percy Walton and I didn’t know he even existed until a few weeks ago. However, in a few days he could be put to death in my name and in the name of all the residents of the Commonwealth of Virginia unless pressure is brought to bear on Governor Tim Kaine to stay the execution.
People of faith may differ on the morality of the death penalty in the first place but Percy Walton’s case deserves thoughtful consideration regardless of one’s position regarding capital punishment.
Walton did plead guilty to four counts of capital murder for the killings of three different people and sentenced to death in 1997. Such heinous crimes warrant punishment and life imprisonment without parole is one option. Given the rest of Percy’s story, it is perhaps the most just option as well.
According to court records Percy Walton was 18 years old at the time of his crime. Walton suffers from schizophrenia and his illness has gone untreated for over a decade. Over the past several years prison personnel, including a psychiatrist, have described him as being “floridly psychotic” and severely mentally retarded.
Five of the most recent grants of clemency to death row inmates nationally have been based on the inmate’s extreme mental illness. These include Calvin Swann, who was granted clemency in 1999 by then Governor Jim Gilmore. Clemency in these cases does not indicate a judicial system full of bleeding heart liberals but rather a court’s objective understanding of the severe consequences of full blown mental illness and the need for treatment and compassion rather than vengeance and condemnation.
For those of us who oppose the death penalty regardless of the criminal’s mental state, Percy Walton’s story is somewhat irrelevant. Some believe “Thou Shalt not Kill” and “Love your Enemy” and “Forgive seventy times seventy” actually applies to all capital offenses. Life imprisonment without parole offers a just and merciful consequence.
But even for those of us who feel the death penalty can be justified, the psychological profiles of particular inmates should give us cause to pause. WWJE? Who would Jesus execute? A mentally retarded, severely psychotic man who shows no real understanding of the crime he committed nor the ramifications of his own execution? I think not.
For those of us who feel called to try and spare the life of Percy Walton while ensuring that he does remain incarcerated without parole, there is still time to take action before Thursday. The office of Governor Timothy Kaine can be reached in Richmond at (804) 786-2211. Email messages can be sent via the Governor’s website at www.governor.virginia.gov/AboutTheGovernor/contactGovernor.cfm
And regardless of our position and our conscience, we can all pray the words of Sister Helen Prejean, a Roman Catholic nun who is committed to a ministry that addresses not only the death row inmates and their families but their victims and families as well.
A Prayer to Abolish the Death Penalty
God of Compassion,
You let your rain fall on the just and the unjust.
Expand and deepen our hearts
so that we may love as You love,
even those among us
who have caused the greatest pain by taking life.
For there is in our land a great cry for vengeance
as we fill up death rows and kill the killers
in the name of justice, in the name of peace.
Jesus, our brother,
you suffered execution at the hands of the state
but you did not let hatred overcome you.
Help us to reach out to victims of violence
so that our enduring love may help them heal.
Holy Spirit of God,
You strengthen us in the struggle for justice.
Help us to work tirelessly
for the abolition of state-sanctioned death
and to renew our society in its very heart
so that violence will be no more. Amen.
--Sister Helen Prejean, C.S.J.
Used with permission
Jack Payden-Travers, Director
Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
P.O. Box 4804
Charlottesville, VA 22905
888-567-VADP (office)
434-960-4673 (Jack)
www.vadp.org
jack@vadp.org