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CRIMINAL JUSTICE SOCIAL STATMENTS - PRESBYTERIAN
Capital Punishment
http://www.pcusa.org/criminaljustice/issues/capital/moratorium.htm
And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)
The use of the death penalty in a representative democracy places citizens in the role of executioner: "Christians cannot isolate themselves from corporate responsibility, including the responsibility for every execution, as well as for every victim" (Minutes, PC(USA), 1985, Part I, p. 682).
Gross deficiencies exist in the area of representation of indigent defendants. In a series of rulings since 1991, the Supreme Court has drastically restricted the rights of death row prisoners to appeal their convictions and death sentences in federal courts, even in cases where prisoners present compelling evidence of innocence. Counsel for impoverished capital defendants are most often under-trained and underpaid. Judges routinely deny lawyers' requests to hire experts or to pay for investigative fees. (Marcia Coyle, Carter Center Symposium on the Death Penalty. Georgia State University Law Review, pp. 379-80, 1997)
The American Bar Association has concluded that administration of the death penalty is a haphazard maze of unfair practices with no internal consistency.
The 212th General Assembly (2000) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.):
1. declares its continuing opposition to capital punishment.
2. calls for an immediate moratorium on all executions in all jurisdictions that impose capital punishment.
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