Montgomery clergy calls for review of execution process to be public

Montgomery clergy members gathered Tuesday at the state Capitol to call for more transparency as Alabama officials review how the state administers the death penalty.

The four Montgomery faith leaders delivered a letter signed by more than 170 Alabama clergy members to a member of Gov. Kay Ivey's staff, thanking Ivey for ordering a pause in executions but requesting that the investigation be conducted by an independent party and its results made public.

Ivey on Nov. 21 asked Attorney General Steve Marshall to pause executions in the state for a "top-to-bottom review" of its capital punishment process after the state failed to carry out two straight executions and spent hours jabbing another man with needles before he was put to death.

Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said his department is investigating the process as Ivey requested. None of the possible findings have been made public, and it's not clear that they will be.

The faith leaders from Montgomery that met outside the state Capitol, spoke and delivered the letter were the Rev. Lynn Hopkins of Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Montgomery; the Rev. Shane Isner of First Christian Church; Rabbi Scott Looper of Temple Beth Or; and Father Manuel Williams of Resurrection Catholic Missions of the South.

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"My colleagues and I gathered this morning as representatives of the Abrahamic religions. And in all of our theologies and diversities of spiritualities, we come to encourage and to be about the business of speaking about justice and mercy in our state, and how to make this state more humane and just," Williams said. "Justice must always be tempered with compassion and with human and some divine insight."

Williams said that no entity — governmental, religious or otherwise — should be trusted to investigate itself.

"Most human organizations... cannot investigate themselves. It is onerous to almost impossible. So we would encourage her to take this fine opportunity to appoint that transparent review board, so that we might, if we must execute people, do it at least in the most humane way possible," Williams said.

Isner called the state's execution procedures "rather horrific" and "cruel and unusual." He said Christian teaching encourages showing love to those on death row.

"Look, I'm a Christian, as the governor says she is, and our scriptures say that in the end, 'Three things remain: faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love,'" Isner said, referencing the Bible verse 1 Corinthians 13:13. "And love is not how we are treating death row inmates in Alabama."

Hopkins, Isner, Looper and Williams delivered the letter to Ivey's constituent services director at about 10:20 a.m.

Other faith leaders from Montgomery who signed the letter include:

• Pastor Richard Williams of Metropolitan United Methodist Church

• The Rev. Dr. Gloria Penn Taylor of Troy Chapel AME Zion Church

• Pastor Leonard E. Cammack of Hall Street Baptist Church

• The Rev. Edward J Nettles, pastor emeritus of Freewill Missionary Baptist Church

• The Rev. Tiffany C. Chaney of Gathered by Grace

• The Rev. Raymonda Speller of Community Congregational United Church of Christ

• The Rev. Robert McCloud of Matthew Chapel AME Zion Church

• Bishop David Graves of the Alabama-West Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church

• Pastor Terrence Jones of Strong Tower at Washington Park.

Faith leaders from Tuscaloosa who signed the letter include:

• The Rev. Julie Conrady of the Unitarian Universalist Congregations of Birmingham and Tuscaloosa

• The Rev. Dr. Joseph Scrivner of Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church

• Emily Altman, elder at Grace Presbyterian Church

• The Rev. Marc Burnette of Canterbury Episcopal Chapel

The letter can be read in its entirety below.

Clergy Letter to Governor Ivey by Paige Windsor on Scribd

Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for the Montgomery Advertiser. Contact him at emealins@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanMealins.

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This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Montgomery clergy calls for review of execution process to be public