February 17, 1999
Panel: Re-examine
biblical view of death penalty
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communication
___AUSTIN--God's justice compels Christians to ask hard questions about capital punishment and the correctional and legal systems, seminar leaders said at the annual statewide conference of the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission.
___Erroneous convictions, racial bias and inconclusive evidence regarding deterrence should lead believers to re-examine thedeath penalty and the way it is carried out in the United States, according to Curtis Freeman, associate professor of Christianity and philosophy at Houston Baptist University.
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE Pete Laney (right), D-Hale Center, and Rep. David Counts, (second from right) D-Knox City, talk with Gail Flood of Southland Baptist Church in San Angelo and Bobby Broyles of First Baptist Church in Earth during the legislator breakfast at the statewide Christian Life Commission conference. (Photo by Ken Camp)
___There is no clear evidence demonstrating that capital punishment is a better deterrent to violent crime than imprisonment, but there is abundant anecdotal evidence that the state sometimes mistakenly executes prisoners for crimes they did not commit, he maintained.
___Offenders are much more likely to be executed if they are poor and black than if they are wealthy and white. Freeman noted that 89 percent of capital prosecutions are non-Anglo, and 60 percent of the inmates on Texas death row are non-white.
___Examining the Scriptures regarding capital punishment, Freeman said the New Testament is silent except for one unclear reference to "the sword" of governmental authority in the 13th chapter of Romans.
___The principle of "lex taliones," or "an eye for an eye," prescribed in the law of Moses was intended as remedial, not ideal, he said. Its purpose was to limit the escalation of violence by vengeful families, he added, and its application was tempered by calls for mercy.
___In the New Testament, Jesus called his disciples to the "higher righteousness" of self-giving, reconciling love and gracious forgiveness, Freeman said. In light of that higher calling, he offered several suggestions for modern-day Christians:
___"Challenge cultural assumptions with gospel truth." He urged Christians to wrestle with death penalty issues, seeking the mind of Christ through the study of Scripture and prayerful, informed dialogue with other believers.
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___Texas "got tough and got smart" in instituting court-mandated reforms to repair a criminal justice system that was "broken" in the early 1980s, as evidenced by overcrowded prisons and flagrant abuses, said Tony Fabelo, executive director of the Austin-based Criminal Justice Policy Council.
___Reforms have corrected the problems of overcrowding and early release of violent offenders, he noted. While acknowledging that demographic, economic and lifestyle factors enter into the equation, he pointed out that violent crime in Texas has decreased every year since 1992.
___But in the process of adding 100,000 prison beds, the state built one of the world's largest prison systems. Texas now has the highest per-capita incarceration rate of any Western democracy. The state locks up more than 700 out of every 100,000 in the general population, a disproportionate share of whom are African-American, Fabelo observed.
___And in implementing drug treatment programs to help substance abusers, the correctional system has been able to help a number of ex-offenders become free from chemical dependency, he said. However, the success rate has not proven that the programs are cost-effective.
___Justice demands that the nation's legal system face questions regarding access, process, equality and righteousness, according to Tom Hanna, a Baptist attorney from Nederland and former executive director of the State Bar.
___Rising costs of litigation and declining funds for legal assistance result in limiting citizens' access to the courts for redress of grievances, and that is a prescription for disaster, said Hanna, a former chairman of the Texas Baptist CLC.
___"Without access, there is no redress, and if there is no redress of grievances in the courts, it will come out someplace, on the barricades or on the streets," he said.
___Citizens also rightly question the equality of a system in which drugs often used by urban blacks carry stiffer penalties than whites' drugs of choice, Hannah observed.
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