Sinkford speaks at the rally

Lois and Ken Robison, parents of a child executed under Texas' death penalty law

Ralph McCloud, Director, Pastoral and Community Services, Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth

David Dow, author of Beacon Press' Executed on a Technicality

3051A Witness for Criminal Justice Reform to Abolish the Death Penalty

Prepared for UUA.org by: Margy Levine Young, Reporter; Jone Johnson Lewis, Editor

View Photo Gallery of Death Penalty Rally

Witness for Criminal Justice Reform to Abolish the Death Penalty Flyer with Resources

Beginning with our first Unitarian Universalist General Assembly in 1961, Unitarian Universalists have called for a moratorium on executions in the United States. At General Assembly 2005, the UUA's Office of Advocacy and Witness and UUs for Alternatives to the Death Penalty organized a public rally event to support death penalty opponents in Texas.

On the hot, sunny afternoon of June 25, 2005, several hundred UUs and other people of faith gathered outside the Forth Worth Convention Center to protest the continuing use of the death penalty in Texas and across the United States . First, the Rev. Craig Roshaven, minister of the First Jefferson UU Church of Ft. Worth, led the participants in several energetic and energizing hymns, including "Guide My Feet," "Over My Head," and "This Little Light of Mine." UU youth carried posters with slogans like "6 foot x 9 foot x 6 foot 6 inches = Death Row Cage" and "972 Executions Since 1976, 345 in Texas."

Roshaven stated, "It matters when someone is getting killed, whether it is a legally sanctioned execution or a murder – it's still violence, and it's still wrong." He introduced a series of other religious leaders and anti-death penalty activists, each with a viewpoint on the death penalty and the treatment of prisoners on death row.

UUA President the Rev. Dr. William Sinkford spoke for the UUA, saying, "When we affirm the inherent worth and dignity of every human being, we try to mean it. The death penalty does not work to prevent murder." Sinkford pointed out that our use of the death penalty puts us in the company of three other countries at the top of the list for executions: In 1999, the People's Republic of China led the world in executions, the Democratic Republic of Congo came in second, we were third, and fourth place went to Iraq, then ruled by Saddam Hussein.

"We do not steal from the thief, rape the rapist, or torture the torturer. We ought not kill the killer," Sinkford exhorted the rally's participants. He then led the group in prayer for the families of victims, those who sit on death row, the families of death row inmates, the elected officials of the State of Texas , and ourselves. He prayed, "Mistakes in this human system lead to death. May we find a path that does not place us in the role of ultimate judges."

Ralph McCloud, the Director of Pastoral and Community Services at the Catholic Diocese of Ft. Worth, was the next speaker. "We are all one family," McCloud said. One commonality among all people of faith is the value that we place on human life and the pursuit of peace. "Our society is like a fabric, and murderers are like broken threads. We need to weave the broken threads back into the fabric, rather than trying to cut them out."

McCloud explained that Jewish, Presbyterian, Buddhist, and Methodist traditions agree on the sanctity of human life. "Visualize the day," he said, "when we no longer have capital punishment in this state or in this country."

Next, Lois and Ken Robison came to the podium to tell the story of how their mentally ill son Larry was executed by the State of Texas in 2000. Starting in his teenaged years, Larry acted oddly, but doctors never diagnosed a problem. Even after Larry was discharged from the Air Force for mental illness, they weren't told why. When Larry was finally diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of 21, their health insurance no longer covered him, and as a non-violent adult, no institution would take him for longer than 30 days, except for a six-month stint in jail. Finally, he killed five people in one day.

"The insanity defense is a joke in Texas," said Lois Robison. "It never happens in Texas." Instead, Larry was sentenced to death, spent 17 years on death row, and was executed in 2000. The day before their son was killed, the Robisons promised him that they would work for the rest of their life against the death penalty. They are now advocates against the death penalty and for prison reform, and work as part of the Social Action Committee of First Jefferson UU Church in Ft. Worth.

"Larry wasn't a monster," Lois Robison explained to the hushed and grieving crowd. "He was a wonderful person with love in his heart. When you get to know people on death row, you don't want to exterminate them."

Dr. Rick Halperin, of Amnesty International and the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, spoke next. Halperin is also a Professor of History at Southern Methodist University, and he thanked rally participants from outside Texas for coming. "You are standing in a state which is the worst killing jurisdiction in the free world."

Halperin showed photos of execution gurneys, needles, electric chairs, and gas chambers, and pointed out that hanging and death by bullet are also legal, and all these methods are used in the United States. "We seek to end the needless suffering and agony at the hands of the state. State sanctioned killing is and always will be a criminal act."

He called two dates to our attention: June 29th, 1972, when the United States Supreme Court put a moratorium on state killing, and July 2, 1976, when they rescinded it. He urged us to be vocal against the death penalty on the upcoming anniversaries of those dates.

The next speaker was Linda White, the mother of a victim of violence, chair of Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation, and Professor of Psychology and Philosophy at Sam Houston State University . Eighteen years ago, her pregnant 26-year-old daughter Kathleen was assaulted and murdered by two 15-year-old boys. At the time, she was incensed that her daughter's murderers were too young for the death penalty, but as the years went by, her heart changed and she became increasingly uncomfortable with the idea of violent acts in retribution for her daughter's loss.

"I don't think that the death penalty is victim-friendly," said White, citing three reasons. First, she said that it gives false hope to the families of victims that they will find healing and closure when their loved one's killer is killed. "It doesn't work," she said. "You must set your own timetable for healing."

Secondly, White pointed out that the death penalty puts the attention on the perpetrator instead of on the victim. No one remembers the names of those killed in Oklahoma City, but everyone knows the names of their killers. White's third reason is that the death penalty soaks up much-needed funds that could be better spent on sorely-needed victim services.

White then welcomed her granddaughter, her murdered daughter's daughter, Ami White to speak. Ami recalled hearing that her mother was killed when she was five, and the pain and despair that she has felt then and in the years since. "Those on death row and those who are executed have families, too," she said. "They experience the same pain and devastation that I felt. The most premeditated murder of all is the death penalty." The death penalty only creates more victims. Ami White is now the president of the Texas Chapter of Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation.

The Rev. Roshaven thanked the Whites, mother and daughter, for their courage in sharing their stories and helping to prevent others from feeling similar pain.

David Dow, the author of Executed on a Technicality: Lethal Injustice on America's Death Row and Professor of Law at the University of Houston Law Center, spoke next, saying, "The two women you just heard are heroes."

When Dow began representing death-row inmates in 1988, he supported the death penalty, but he came to see that is wrong. "We must achieve the right result in the right way," Dow said. "Ends do not justify means."

Dow has clients who are now on death row in Texas . One, a man named Charles Hood, is scheduled to die within the next week, he reported, even though the judge was allegedly engaged in a sexual relationship with the prosecutor at the time of the trial. This type of irregularity muddies the question of his client's guilt or innocence.

Another client, Frances Newton, is scheduled to die on September 14, 2005. Because the State of Texas mishandled key evidence after the original trial, it is now impossible for further testing to be done on Newton 's clothing to ascertain whether she could have fired the weapon with which she is convicted of using for murder.

When the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, Justice Thurgood Marshall wrote that if people knew how the death penalty works, that we violated our principles every day, the public would be against it.

After introducing two other clergy in attendance – the Rev. Gayland Pool, a local Episcopalian minister, and the Rev. David Barber of the United Church of Christ – the Rev. Roshaven introduced Susan Leslie, Director of Congregational Advocacy and Witness at the UUA, to talk about how rally attendees can take further action. She suggested that participants contact their U.S. congressional representatives to ask them to support a bill (H.R. 379 ) to declare a moratorium on executions. We can also work with the moratorium movements that exist in every state that has the death penalty, she said. "Pass along this slogan," she said, "Execute justice, not people!"

For more information:

• Larry Robison Website 
• TX CURE – Texas Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants

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