| Speech, Moratorium Rally, January 29, 2002 |
| Dr. Robin Meyers |
My name is Robin Meyers, and
I am the minister of Mayflower Congregational Church of OKC, and professor of
Communication Studies at Oklahoma City University...
I stand before you to ask
that you support HB 2648--a one year moratorium on executions in Oklahoma, and
HB 2635--a bill to prohibit the execution of the mentally retarded--both
sponsored by Opio Toure, who is a light in the darkness
Last year at this time I was
mourning the death of Wanda Jean Allen, to whom I had become a spiritual
advisor, and for whom I made an unsuccessful plea for clemency.
She was the first woman ever executed by the state, although once we
had cleared this hurdle, we executed two more women before the year was over.
Wanda Jean was poor, black, lesbian, brain-damaged, and got the kind of
justice that you get in America when you have no money.
Even though she had become a
model prisoner, and deeply religious, the state of Oklahoma killed her in the
name of justice, and to provide to her victim's family that mythical thing
called "closure," And the state of Oklahoma killed her, in your
name, while reading to her from the Bible--passages which she had picked that
spoke of a loving and forgiving God.
Because of this experience,
what was once an intellectual objection to the death penalty on my part became
a visceral objection. The state
loses its moral authority when it kills for killing.
And, worst of all--commits a profoundly un-Christian act.
I am NOT here today not
because I wish the attach myself to a cause that is politically correct, or to
be among people who may wish to be thought of as prophets decrying the
hypocrisies of our time. I am
here because I am a Christian--and in my study of the New Testament, I have
come to believe that it is inconceivable that Jesus, if he were here today,
would support state-sponsored killing as a form of justice.
I ask people of faith
everywhere, but especially those who are followers of Jesus of Nazareth, to
ask yourself honestly whether you really want to ask that question "What
Would Jesus Do?" or if you are willing to be as shocked by the answer as
were those who first heard him speak of restorative, not retributive justice.
