Killing Capital Punishment: How the Episcopal and Interfaith Communities helped to make it happen in New York State

By NICOLE SEIFERTH

Tuesday, April 12 was a day of “quiet joy” for Demi McGuire.

As the former director of New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty and current director of the New York State Episcopal Public Policy Network, McGuire has actively opposed the death penalty for over 20 years. In that time, she has experienced days of patient vigilance, as she helped keep the death penalty out of New York for 15 years, and grim ones as she witnessed capital punishment reinstated in 1995. April 12, however, was quite different – on that day, the New York state assembly effectively abolished the death penalty in New York State.

“It was an amazing moment for those of us who have been in this battle for so long,” McGuire said. “There were no pumping of fists in the air or cheering, but you went out feeling lighter. A lot of people had worked very hard on this issue for a very long time.”

Capital Punishment, Past and Present

The Supreme Court of the United States declared many death penalty statutes unconstitutional in 1972 and the sentence was removed from New York state law. Although legislation to restore the death penalty was brought forward several times in the next 20 years, it was consistently vetoed by both Governor Carey and Governor Cuomo. The reinstatement of capital punishment was, however, one of Governor George Pataki’s campaign platforms, and after he took office, a new death penalty statute was signed into law 1995.

Seven men have been sentenced to death in New York since 1995. During that time, McGuire left New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty to help start the New York Episcopal Public Policy Network. As some of the death penalty cases reached the Court of Appeals, the issues surrounding capital punishment began to heat up again.

Four cases had reached the court and “in every case,” McGuire says, “the Court of Appeals found fault with one or another section of the law and threw out the sentence of death each time an appeal was made. It was clear the death penalty law had many flaws.”

Springing into Action

The statute was declared unconstitutional by the Court of Appeals in 2004 and, as McGuire puts it, “the abolition movement sprang into action.”

“What we discovered,” she says, “is that, particularly in the Assembly, the dynamic had changed since 10 years ago. There were new members who hadn’t voted 10 years ago. There was a feeling, not just in New York state but throughout the country, that life without parole was a severe enough sentence.”

McGuire and David Kaczynski, head of New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty, began meeting with Assembly members and, in the meantime, McGuire says Episcopalians and all kinds of other people were writing to their representatives, expressing their opposition to the death penalty.

And were, apparently, heard. Although the state Senate easily passed a revised death penalty statute, the committees that were responsible for various parts of the statute and had to review the new bill before it could be passed on the Assembly floor for a vote, chose to hold public hearings on the death penalty.

In their report on the hearings, the committee members state, “We decided that, rather than act quickly, we would act deliberately. We decided to review New York’s death penalty statute in all of its dimensions and solicit the widest range of views possible before considering which action to take, if any.”

One of the “dimensions” that strongly responded to the public hearings with testimony from many different perspectives was the religious community. The committee members heard from leaders of many faith groups, including several from the Episcopal Church [see sidebar].

Kaczynski says the voices of the religious community were particularly important, as they “provided the ethical framework for eveything the committee members were hearing.”

Archdeacon Michael Kendall was one of the Episcopal leaders who testified before the committees at one of the hearings in New York City. In his testimony, he told committee members that, “not only the Episcopal Church, locally and nationally, but most major denominations have opposed the death penalty for a long time.

“What I see theologically is that this is a matter of life and death and is in God’s hands, not ours. By the state using capital punishment, which has been abolished in much of the civilized world, we are, in fact, adding to the cycle of violence and the continuation of suffering, as opposed to a way of stopping the use of violence and helping create a society that is genuinely interested in reconciliation.”

The Rev. Canon Charles Pridemore, who is part of the diocese’s Social Concerns Commission and works closely with the diocese’s Prison Ministry Network, sees capital punishment in much the same way. “For those of the main faith communities the Bible clearly says: ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ It does not say unless a person kills someone or that governments are exempt.”

Five hearings were held from December 15, 2004 to February 11, 2005, and at those hearings committee members received testimony from many different perspectives – from victims’ families to criminal justice experts – that painted a bleak picture of the effectiveness and the affect of the death penalty. At the same time, McGuire and Kaczynski kept the Social Justice Concerns Commission informed of their progress and urged them to “keep the drumbeat going with their local legislators.”

In the course of the hearings, some assembly members who had previously supported the death penalty began to change their minds, including the chairs of the Codes Committee and Judiciary Committee, both of whom had voted for the death penalty statute in 1995.

It became clear to us,” says McGuire, “that in the Codes Committee, where the bill had to be considered first before it could possibly go for a full vote in the assembly, that there weren’t enough votes” to send it to the assembly.

The committees released their 57 page report on the hearings on April 3 and voted not to report the bill on April 12.

“It’s been a long, long struggle, but slowly I think people are waking up to the fact that this is just not a way for a civilized nation to go,” says Kendall. “The death penalty is really about our whole society. What kind of society are we? Are we a society of retribution or a society of healing and reconciliation?”

Of the 38 states that have reinstated the death penalty since 1972, New York is the first to subsequently remove the statute from law. “There are efforts going on all over the country – either to repeal or to have moratoriums and everybody was watching New York state on this issue. This has heartened efforts all over the country,” McGuire said.

Shari Silberstein of Equal Justice USA, a national organization that worked closed with NYADP during the hearings, says that New York is part of a national change of perspective on capital punishment. “But New York took a step forward, leaving the pack. There’s a real inevitability to the death penalty being halted in the US.”

Celebration and Vigilance

In the five years Kaczynski has been working with NYADP, he “never imagined we would be at this place this quickly.” But he also knows that the celebration could be short-lived without continued vigilance on the part of the abolitionists throughout the state. The state Senate passed the death penalty bill, he reminds, and the governor has vowed to reinstate it. Advocacy and education are key.

McGuire agrees. “This is an issue that, from my experience, never goes away.” It isn’t hard, she says, to be an active part of the abolition movement. “When you’re sitting around the dinner table and the issue comes up, let people know how you feel. Ask people who are running for office where they stand on the issue. Educate yourself.”

The abolishment of capital punishment in the state, says Kendall, “did not happen because a few people worked on this. This was a massive push, many people in the diocese writing letters, sending testimony, making phone calls – that’s the way to do it. An issue like this is not a quick fix; it’s a long term witness and strategy to really change society.”

Thinking longterm, McGuire says “we never let up the pressure. Every time an Episcopalian who is an abolitionist goes to a meeting, meets an elected official – you tell them how you feel. You keep up the pressure because what the legislators are beginning to see is that there is a real opposition to [the death penalty].”

Hearing the voices of their constituents is critical to the abolishment of capital punishment, according to Kaczynski. “The critical mass [of politicians] are willing to do the right thing, as long as it’s politically viable. That’s why it’s so important that people continue to contact them and let them know they don’t want the death penalty.”

Despite the real need for continued vigilance and advocacy, Kendall offered one reason for that “quiet joy” of April 12: “Sometimes people feel they can’t fix the system, but they can.”

The Death Penalty

Making Room for Redemption:
A conversation with the Rev. Petero Sabune

Religious Leaders Testify
Excerpts from testimony given before the State Assembly Committees by leaders from the Episcopal Church and beyond.

The New York State Episcopal Public Policy Network and the national Episcopal Public Policy Network alert their members to legislation that is important to the Episcopal Church. You can easily sign up to receive their "action alerts." Here's how:

New York State Episcopal Public Policy Network
Email Demi McGuire at nysppn@aol.com

The Episcopal Public Policy Network (click here)