Posted on 03/27/2021 6:38:23 PM PDT by marshmallow
Some faith leaders are now hoping the Biden administration will follow suit.
(RNS) — Faith groups are celebrating Virginia’s decision to ban the death penalty, a move considered to be a victory for religious opposition to capital punishment.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam signed the ban — the first of any Southern state and the 23rd overall — into law on Wednesday (March 24), declaring it “the moral thing to do.”
“Over our 400-year history, Virginia has executed more people than any other state,” Northam said. “The death penalty system is fundamentally flawed — it is inequitable, ineffective, and it has no place in this Commonwealth or this country. Virginia has come within days of executing innocent people, and Black defendants have been disproportionately sentenced to death.”
The Rev. LaKeisha Cook, a lead organizer at the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, also spoke at the signing ceremony.
“Today I stand here representing many people of faith all throughout the commonwealth of Virginia,” Cook said. “Virginia Interfaith was very, very happy to join officially in this fight for abolition. Today we turn the page in the history books of this great commonwealth as we celebrate the end of the death penalty.”
Cook pointed to the activism of the state’s “amazing faith community,” such as those who held prayer vigils at sites of lynchings in January to highlight the historical link between early racist killings and the modern death penalty, or the nearly 430 faith leaders who signed on to a letter opposing the death penalty in February.
Cook noted the advocacy of the Virginia Catholic Conference, which also voiced support for the ban on Wednesday. Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of the Diocese of Arlington and Bishop Barry C. Knestout of Richmond released a statement citing Pope Francis, whose 2020 encyclical......
(Excerpt) Read more at religionnews.com ...
They banned abortion? Never mind.
spjnk
Idiots.
They abort way more than actual criminals.
This is what is considered good these days.
“Faith Groups” = Non-Christians.
No, they think abortion and infanticide are their god’s (Moloch’s) gift to mankind.
Northam said. “The death penalty system is fundamentally flawed — it is inequitable, ineffective, and it has no place in this Commonwealth
Tell that to the relatives of victims that have had the death penalty applied to them .... you fool.
If Jesus was against the death penalty then why did He pay it for us?
Hey guv...murder is fundamentally flawed, inequitable also. But it is effective. Please ban the murder of innocent people also.
Show everyone how powerful and intelligent you are.
Boy, we’ve come a long way from the Middle Ages, when death was granted as a form of LENIENCY!
Faith in what, anarchy?
Northam and the Dems are such racist. They turned the death penalty into let’s get a black vote.
Yep, liberal fake religious groups.
Noticed how these same “faith groups” are rejoicing that idiotic moron blackface Northam banned late term abortions...../s
Northam is against the “death penalty” for those who kill innocent people yet he is openly in favor of late term abortions including right at the moment of birth and even a few hours later.
Who’s the “killer” here, the gunman or the governor (who is Virginia’s “Dr. Mengele/Gosnell” rolled up into one evil creature?
Indeed, and why would Paul say "if I be an offender, or have committed any thing worthy of death, I refuse not to die" (Acts 25:11) if there were no capital crimes.
Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. (Romans 1:32)
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