Contact: Rachel Labush (202) 387-2800

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
 

RELIGIOUS LEADERS PETITION PRESIDENT CLINTON FOR CLEMENCY FOR JUAN RAUL GARZA
AND FOR A MORATORIUM ON FEDERAL EXECUTIONS
 

“The overwhelming majority of communities of faith are united in their opposition to the death penalty.”

WASHINGTON, D.C., December 5, 2000 –Many Jewish leaders joined more than seventy other religious leaders from a wide spectrum of faiths in calling on President Clinton to grant clemency to Juan Raul Garza and to institute a moratorium on federal executions. The leaders sent a letter to the President today.

The Jewish leaders who signed the letter include Rabbi Eric Yoffie, President, Union of American Hebrew Congregations; Rabbi David Saperstein, Director, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism; Rabbi Charles Kroloff, President, Central Conference of American Rabbis; Rabbi Paul J. Menitoff, Executive Vice President, Central Conference of American Rabbis; Rabbi Jerome Epstein, President of United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism; Rabbi Vernon H. Kurtz, President, The Rabbinical Assembly; Jack Stern, President, American Jewish Congress; Rabbi Irving Greenberg, President, Jewish Life Network; and Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, President, International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. In addition, Professor Susannah Heschel, daughter of Abraham Joshua Heschel, is among the signatories.

Mr. Garza’s execution, set for December 12, will be the first federal execution in almost forty years. Voicing their strong moral and ethical support for a moratorium on executions, the religious leaders commented that “serious questions regarding the fairness of the administration of the federal death penalty are squarely before” the President.

A Mexican-American, Mr. Garza is representative of the racial and geographic disparities exposed in the recent Justice Department survey of the federal capital punishment system. The Department’s own statistics reveal that nearly 70 percent of defendants sentenced to federal capital have been members of racial minorities. The study also shows that U.S. Attorneys in a handful of states are responsible for submitting nearly half of all potential federal capital prosecutions for approval by the Attorney General. The President has acknowledged that he is “troubled” by the results of the Justice Department survey, which, according to the Attorney General, is still on going.

Believing in the sanctity of life, including that of crime victims and of those who are convicted of crimes, this diverse group of clergy and lay religious leaders from across the nation appealed to President Clinton not to make the resumption of federal executions after forty years part of his legacy. In calling upon the President to grant clemency to Mr. Garza and to declare a moratorium on federal executions, these representatives of the nation’s faith communities also asked the President to pay heed to the fact that more Americans have reservations about the death penalty than at any time since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976.

Among the other prominent religious leaders who signed the letter are Rev. Dr. Robert Edgar, General Secretary, National Council of Churches; the Most Reverend Frank Tracy Griswold, Presiding Bishop and Primate, Episcopal Church USA; Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, Presbyterian Church U.S.A; Archbishop Nicholas Lambrou, Archbishop-Primate, Autocephalous Holy Eastern Orthodox Church, Archdiocese of the Americas; Senior Bishop Nathaniel Lindsey, CEO Christian Methodist Episcopal Church; Rev. John H. Thomas, General Minister and President, United Church of Christ; Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell, the first clergywoman to serve as General Secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ; and Sister Helen Prejean, Author, Dead Man Walking.

In addition, numerous other clergy and leaders of religious social justice groups signed the letter. They represent a range of denominations and organizations such as the Ahmaddiyya Movement of Islam, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, and the American Ethical Union.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

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