| Marching to save the condemned |
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Walkers headed to D.C. to protest death penalty.
Marching to save the condemned Walkers headed to D.C. to protest death penalty BY REGGIE PONDER DAILY DISPATCH WRITER Wearing T-shirts that describe their journey as “making strides toward abolition and reconciliation,” a dozen participants in the Raleigh-toWashington “Walk of Remembrance” traveled through Vance County Tuesday and held a prayer vigil against the death penalty outside the county courthouse at 3 p.m. “These are the places where the pain of the victim’s family and the pain of the perpetrator’s family just gets thrown in the pot together,” Scott Bass, walk organizer, said during the vigil, explaining the group’s penchant for prayer vigils at courthouses. Bass, an ordained Baptist minister who recently entered into full communion with the Catholic Church, led the prayer vigil for the dozen people in the group. Most of the protestors sat in the grass in a circle, though a few stood at the edge of the circle. The group prayed silently and also offered vocal petitions for jurors, prosecutors, victims’ families and everyone involved in the court system. They prayed that their presence along highways and outside courthouses would be a sign to the communities they pass through. The marches left Raleigh Sunday and plan to arrive in Washington, D.C., June 29 to join the “Starvin’ for Justice” fast and vigil to abolish the death penalty, to be held outside the U.S. Supreme Court June 29 through July 2. Bass is involved full-time with Nazareth House, a Catholic Worker community in Raleigh that works with families of people on death row as well as families who have lost loved ones to murder. The house also frequently provides shelter to people who are homeless. Everyone on the walk “is coming from a Christian faith perspective,” he said. Those marching Tuesday represented Catholic, Quaker and Baptist traditions. In addition to the core group of walkers, others are joining the group along the route for part of the trek. Termed the “Walk of Remembrance,” the journey is intended to remember the victims of murder, remember the families of those on death row, and remember “we’re all brother and sisters,” Bass said, adding the latter is forgotten every time an act of violence is committed on the street or in the execution chamber. The walkers are sleeping in homes of friends and on church floors along the way. Nazareth House is the walk’s main sponsor, but the venture also has official endorsements from People of Faith Against the Death Penalty, Murder Victim Families for Reconciliation, and the Capital Restorative Justice Project. Among those on the walk are 17-year-old Ellen Biesack and 14-year-old Moira O’Neill, who describe themselves as good friends who have grown up attending protests. “When we get tired, we just think about the people in prison — the people we’re walking for,” O’Neill said. Bass’ own thinking about the death penalty has evolved over the years. “There was a time when I thought that the death penalty wasn’t totally wrong,” he said. What really changed his mind, he said, was meeting families of people on death row and families of murder victims. Bass said he was trained as a therapist and had discovered that the death penalty, far from helping families of murder victims work through their grief and anger, actually keeps them stuck in a stage that prevents them moving toward their healing. “I became very convinced that it’s not doing anybody any favors,” Bass said. He has been working against capital punishment for four years. Human beings are flawed, and a system run by flawed people should not have the authority to take a life, he said. The courts can keep society safe by locking the most dangerous people up for the rest of their lives, Bass said. “We don’t need to kill anybody.” Any time the death penalty is carried out there’s the risk of executing an innocent person, he said. Bass said he talks to families of murder victims who are on both sides of the death penalty issue. But he finds most family members of victims oppose capital punishment, though he acknowledged those against the death penalty might gravitate toward him because of the work he does. He said the marchers look forward to meeting with families of murder victims, and others concerned about the problem of violence in society, during their days on the road to Washington. They welcome conversation with people who hold views across the whole spectrum regarding the death penalty. “We’re not just out to try and cram our opinions down anybody’s throat,” Bass said. Although many people give lip service to helping the families of murder victims, few actually do anything to help them, he said. And families of those on death row have it even worse, Bass said. “The families of people on death row seem to be totally forgotten and invisible,” he said. Contact the writer at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . |
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