From United Church News
The United Church of Christ's Justice and Witness Ministries is celebrating today's (March 1) decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to abolish the death penalty for juveniles.
By a narrow 5-4 decision, the high court ruled it unconstitutional for courts to impose capital punishment on those who were juveniles at the time they committed their crimes. As many as 70 death row inmates are expected to be affected by the decision, news reports indicate.
The decision was hailed immediately by many faith groups -- including the UCC, which has long opposed capital punishment as immoral and inhumane.
Since 1969, the UCC's General Synod has adopted multiple resolutions pointing out the gross injustices and racial inequalities associated with the death penalty, calling for its abolishment. In 1999, the church's national representative body which speaks "to" but not "for" UCC congregations - called for a moratorium on executions, and in 2001, the General Synod affirmed the right of juveniles to an "equitable system of justice."
The Rev. Sala W.J. Gonzales Nolan, the UCC's minister for criminal justice and human rights, said Supreme Court's action is further evidence that the United States is coming to a new understanding about the immorality of state-sanctioned executions. The United States remains one of the last industrialized countries in the world to impose the death penalty.
"It is one thing to oppose the death penalty because it is unfair," Nolan said. "It is another to oppose it simply because it is wrong."
"Again and again, the United Church of Christ has called out the disproportionate number of black, Hispanic, poor and disabled people who occupy death row," she said. "But this has nothing to do with why the death penalty is wrong. To take someone's life deprives that person absolutely of the ability to transcend, as we were all meant to do. This is why vengeance does not belong to us."
With 1.3-million members in nearly 6,000 congregations, the UCC was formed in 1957 with the union of the Congregational Christian Churches and the Evangelical and Reformed Church. The UCC's national offices are located in Cleveland, Ohio.
