Bishop Sutton Testifies before Death Penalty Panel

Bishop Sutton and bishops from the Roman Catholic and Methodist Churches urged state lawmakers Tuesday to repeal the death penalty, arguing that state executions do nothing to curb the violence that has poisoned so many communities in the state. In his testimony, Bishop Sutton asked the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment: "How, in the end, does killing its citizens help the state to build the nonviolent, just and civil society that we all desire for ourselves and our children?" The text of Bishop Sutton's testimony appears below. Click here to read a story about the hearing in Wednesday's Baltimore Sun.

Bishop Sutton's Statement on Capital Punishment

We applaud and praise Governor O’Malley’s moral courage to place a moratorium on state-sponsored executions in Maryland. We hope and pray that this commission will conclude that the death penalty should be abolished in this great state.

For decades, The Episcopal Church has voiced strong public opposition to capital punishment. Our essential question today is whether, without exception, the death penalty should be imposed on someone convicted of murdering another human being. Our unequivocal answer is “no.” The Christian faith is rooted in both testaments of the Hebrew and Christian scriptures. In the Bible, we find that every human being is given life by God, and only God the righteous Judge has the right to deny life. Of course, we understand that the state must seek justice and prosecute wrongdoing, but we cannot condone a decision by the state to pronounce a sentence of death for wrongdoing---no matter how violent and brutal the crime of the perpetrator may have been. Because of our belief in a just and moral God, there is simply no moral justification for the state to execute a child of God in the name of justice. Read more...