Edmunds: Virginia shouldn't be "a little bit gruesome," either - Roanoke Times: Opinion Page | of 1
Edmunds: Virginia shouldn't be "a
little bit gruesome," either
Story Comments Print Font Size:
Posted: Wednesday, Apri 15, 2015 2:00 am
pmaeue sonwsive2 GAGE) The Rev. Gene B. Edmunds Edmunds, a retired
© Presbyterian minister, representing the Alternatives to the
Death Penalty Committee of Plowshare Peace Center.
By the Rev. Gene 8. Edmunds
Edmunds, a retired Presbyterian minister, representing
the Alternatives to the Death Penalty Committee of
Plowshare Peace Center.
Utah Gov. Gary Herbert recent signed a aw reinstating
the firing squad as a means of execution. Even
Herbert has acknowledged that killing someone yt firing
squad “is a litle bit gruesome.”
NEW TE UPN os fo FETE IT BY Fina aN,
PAT BAGLEY, The Salt Lake Tribune He believed the law was necessary because Utah,
Virginia and the 32 other states where the death penalty
(Oklahoma that made headlines last year.
‘Most European countries, and 140 countries worldwide, have already abolished the death penalty. As a result, many
Evioppan manutcturars object othe se of hk duos bythe Sn éxeciona And ty ars becoming
ry
obtain after an EU
For those of us who oppose the death penalty, any means of execution is not only “a litle bit gruesome,” itis
unfathomable: Meny people who oni iurir ane er the Ineo of dip, rage run mental he
Issues. Yet we allow sane, sober, state representatives, on a premeditated date, with numerous eye vans to
intentionally at sey rho toubeel aend fle of any man or woman. It makes no sense that this is legal.
We is opone caial pliisansii dot oppose punishing ini shoe demas thal thy Feces
the death penalty, for the following reasons.
Innocent people may die. There have been 151 exonerations from death row since 1973. Just days ago, Anthony
Ray Hinton, age 58, was freed after spending nearly 30 years on Alabama's death row. He said he never really
believed that he would be executed because “God knows that | was innocent.” Family members showed him how to
buckle his seat belt for the ride home.
It is not fair. Race plays a role. Black lives matter, but researchers in Virginia found that a person is more than three
times as likely to be sentenced to death when the victim is white as when the victim is black.
It is biased against the poor. Money talks and allows the accused to hire top lawyers. There are no millionaires on
death row,
Itis geographically based. Thirty-four states still allow the death penalty. Since the death penally was reinstated in
197, about 90 percent of all U.S. executions have been in the South. Virginia has executed 110 people since 1977;
we are third in number behind Texas and Oklahoma
It does not deter crime. In fact, states with the death penalty have higher murder rates than those without it. Eighty-
four percent of U.S. top criminological societies reject the claim that the death penalty acts as a deterrent to murder.
It is too expensive. States that have studied the cost found irrefutable data than the death penalty costs much more
that lfe imprisonment. A Duke University study found that taxpayers in North Carolina spend $2.16 milion more on
‘an execution than they would spend on a prison sentence for life.
| believe that the death penalty will eventually be abolished in Virginia and in all 50 of the United States. As Martin
Luther King Jr. said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Tragically, these changes
will be too late for those have gone to their death innocent of their charges, and perhaps for some of those who now
await their execution on death row.
‘There has not been an execution in Virginia since January 2013, and we hope that there will never be another.
However, because current law allows them, Plowshare Peace Center holds a candlelight vigil in front of the City
Market Building on the nights of executions. We stand silently remembering the families of both the victim and the
For more information, or to offer support, contact Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty at www.VADP.org
or Plowshare Peace Center at www.Plowshareva.org.
http://www.roanoke.com/opinion/edmunds-virginia-shouldn-t-be-a-little-bit-gruesome-eith... 4/17/2015
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0