Time to end death penalty

We recently celebrated Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. In his call to heal community he provided us with some wisdom on the death penalty:

“Capital punishment is against the better judgment of modern criminology, and, above all, against the highest expression of love in the nature of God.”

“Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate violence multiplies violence and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.”

Pope Francis recently called for an end of capital punishment:

“Indeed, nowadays the death penalty is unacceptable, however grave the crime of the convicted person…”

“It does not render justice to victims, but instead fosters vengeance,”

Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s TCTV (Channel 22) in February will have an interview of a person wrongly convicted and on death row in our state. It and an interview with another death row survivor can be seen on their web page: http://www.olympiafor.org/death_penalty.htm and http://www.olympiafor.org/tv_programs.htm

In Washington State Legislature there are both Democrats and Republicans supporting legislation to abolish the death penalty. They are doing this because death penalty is very expensive, unfair with majority of people executed being poor and/or people of color and when mistakes are made they cannot be corrected. They announced the bill on Martin Luther King Day. It is time to end it in our State.

This story was originally published February 3, 2017 at 6:31 PM with the headline "Time to end death penalty."