May 8th, 2001

The Honorable George Walker Bush
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear President Bush:

On December 4, 2000, many of us wrote to President Clinton to urge him to declare an executive moratorium on federal executions and to grant clemency to Juan Raul Garza. At that time, Mr. Garza was scheduled to be the first individual executed under the federal death penalty in nearly forty years. Pressing the need for a moratorium on federal executions, we called upon President Clinton to respond decisively to questions that were troubling all Americans who care about fundamental fairness, due process and equal protection of law. A copy of this letter of December 4 is provided under cover of this correspondence.

As you know, on December 7, 2000, President Clinton granted a reprieve to Mr. Garza because he concluded that "the examination of possible racial and regional bias should be completed before the United States goes forward with an execution in a case that may implicate the very questions raised by the Justice Department's continuing study." Mr. Garza now faces an execution date of June 19, 2001. It is our understanding that the Department of Justice study, which now also includes participation by independent investigators, is many months from completion. Certainly, it will be many more months before we will know how racial and geographic disparities affect the administration of the federal death penalty, and whether such disparities can be eliminated.

As we write to you, Timothy McVeigh is scheduled to be the first individual executed under the federal death penalty since 1963. We believe that even those who support capital punishment will agree that no federal execution should proceed until the questions raised by the initial DOJ survey are answered and the nation is assured that the federal death penalty is neither biased nor arbitrary in its application. These questions go to the very core of the American justice system. The purpose of a moratorium – a sustained opportunity for a conscientious and thorough examination of the administration of the federal death penalty – cannot be achieved while any executions take place.

As Americans, we could not fail to ask President Clinton to respond to systemic problems concerning the death penalty that have been in the news and on the minds of so many of our fellow citizens, and have produced a growing national support for a moratorium on executions. However, our letter was also clear in stating that "[t]he overwhelming majority of communities of faith are united in their opposition to the death penalty." By urging President Clinton to grant clemency to Mr. Garza, we expressed our unequivocal support for rational and just alternatives to capital punishment such as life imprisonment. It is, above all, this message of faith that leaders of many different religious communities deliver to you today.

Our December 4 letter to President Clinton explained our opposition to capital punishment, which derives from our shared and strongly held belief in the sanctity of life and our certainty that when the government responds to violence with violence -- even to an act as horrific as the one which took the lives of 168 people in Oklahoma City – its action breeds more violence. As men and women of faith, many of whom work to bring comfort and support to those who have suffered unspeakable grief, we know that their pain, and the pain of a community, a state or even a nation, cannot be healed through the retribution of capital punishment or by vengeance.

May 16 and June 19 are fast approaching. We appeal to you in the strongest possible terms to grant clemency to Mr. McVeigh and Mr. Garza and to impose a moratorium on federal executions.

Sincerely,

 
Dr. Russell B. Barber
Former Religion & Ethics Editor, NBC Television, New York

Rev. Fred H. Beebe
Senior Deacon, Holy Comforter Church, Welaka, FL

Rabbi Leonard Beerman
Los Angeles, CA

Kay Bengston
Assistant Director – Domestic Policy, Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Herbert Blinder
Director, Washington Ethical Action Office, American Ethical Union

Rev. Monsignor Eugene J. Boyle
Chair Emeritus, Interfaith Council of Santa Clara County

Rev. John Buehrens
President, Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations

J. Daryl Byler
Director, Mennonite Central Committee U.S., Washington Office

Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell

Janet Chisholm
Interim Co-Executive Director, Fellowship of Reconciliation

Rev. Craig Corbett,
Florida Annual Conference, The United Methodist Church

Carol Q. Cosby
Disciples Peace Fellowship

Richard Deats
Interim Co-Executive Director, Fellowship of Reconciliation

Marie Dennis
Director, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns

Rev. Michael Dodd
Director, Columban Fathers Justice and Peace Office

Sister Audrey Doetzel, NDS
Director, Christian-Jewish Relation and Encounter, Sisters of Our Lady of Sion, Brooklyn, NY

Fr. Chuck Durante
Co-Chair, Life, Peace & Justice Commission of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Reno

Dr. Bob Edgar
General Secretary, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.

The Rev. Jess Gaither
Rector, St. John's Episcopal Church, Salem, New Jersey

Rev. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson
General Secretary, The Reformed Church in America

Joseph K. Grieboski
President, Institute on Religion and Public Policy, Inc.

The Most Reverend Frank T. Griswold
Presiding Bishop and Primate, Episcopal Church U.S.A.

Howard Hallman
Chair, Methodists United for Peace with Justice

Dr. Richard L. Hamm
General Minister and President, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada

The Rt. Rev. Sanford Z. K. Hampton
Bishop Assistant, Diocese of Olympia (Episcopal)

Tiffany Heath
Interim Legislative Director, Church Women United D.C.

Joel Heim
Moderator, Disciples Peace Fellowship

Rev. Charles Hubbard
Pastor, Gloria Dei Lutheran Church (ELCA), Garland, Texas

Rev. Bernice Powell Jackson
Executive Minister, United Church of Christ

Rev. R. Burke Johnson
President, Moravian Church - Northern Province

The Rev. Sister Catherine Joy, CSF

The Rev. Dale R. Kelley
Pastor, Soldotna United Methodist Church, Alaska Missionary Conference, former Executive Director, Alaskans Against the Death Penalty

Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick
Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Rabbi Charles A. Kroloff
President, Central Conference of American Rabbis

Rabbi Vernon H. Kurtz
President, The Rabbinical Assembly

Archbishop Nicholas Lambrou
Archbishop-Primate, Autocephalous Holy Eastern Orthodox Church, Archdiocese of the Americas

Ven. Kobutsu Malone
Zenji, Executive Director, The Engaged Zen Foundation, Ramsey, NJ

James C. McCloskey
Founder and Director, Centurion Ministries, Inc.

Rev. Melinda V. McLain
Editor, The Pacific, newspaper for the Northern California Nevada Conference of the United Church of Christ

J. E. McNeil
Executive Director, Center on Conscience & War (formerly NISBCO)

Frank McNeirney
National Coordinator, Catholics Against Capital Punishment

Mary Ellen McNish
General Secretary, American Friends Service Committee

Rabbi Paul J. Menitoff
Executive Vice President, Central Conference of American Rabbis

Rabbi Joel H. Meyers
Executive Vice President, The Rabbinical Assembly

Douglas Mirell
President, Progressive Jewish Alliance

Rev. Sala Nolan,
Minister for Criminal Justice and Human Rights, United Church of Christ

Rev. John D. Paarlberg
Minister for Social Witness and Worship, Reformed Church in America

Murray Polner
Chair, Jewish Peace Fellowship

Sister Helen Prejean, C.S.J.
Honorary Chair, Moratorium 2000, and author, Dead Man Walking

Rev. Judy Mills Reimer
Executive Director, Church of the Brethren General Board

Dr. Robert H. Roberts
Interim General Secretary, American Baptist Churches USA

Ellen Y. Rosenberg
Executive Director, Women of Reform Judaism

Rabbi Peter J. Rubinstein
Senior Rabbi, Central Synagogue, New York City

Rabbi David Saperstein
Director, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism

Stuart A. Schlegel
Rector Emeritus, St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Los Gatos, California

Sister Susan Seitz, O.S.J.
Pastoral Associate for Ministries, Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Tyler, Texas

Rita R. Semel
Executive Vice-Chair, San Francisco Interfaith Council

Russ Siler
Director, Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Judith Silverman
President, Women of Reform Judaism

The Rev. Melodee Smith
Clergy Coalition to End Executions

Douglas Sturm
Professor of Religion, Emeritus, Bucknell University

Susan Teshu
Leader, American Ethical Union

Rev. John H. Thomas
General Minister and President, United Church of Christ

Bishop James C. Timlin
Diocese of Scranton

Joe Volk
Executive Secretary, Friends Committee on National Legislation (Quakers)

Rev. Jim Wallis
Editor-in-Chief, Sojourners

Mr. James E. Winkler
General Secretary, General Board of Church and Society, United Methodist Church

Harmon L. Wray
Executive Director, Restorative Justice Ministries, The United Methodist Church

Rev. Dr. Aidsand Wright-Riggins
Executive Director of National Ministries, American Baptist Church U.S.A.

Rabbi Eric Yoffie
President, Union of American Hebrew Congregations

Cc: Alberto R. Gonzales, Chris Bartolomucci, Andrew H. Card, John Bridgeland
 
 

Return to Citizens for a Moratorium on Federal Executions Home