By George Reed, Retired Executive Director Newly Introduced Bills BUDGET AND TAXES H 540, Teachers & State Employees Pay Raise, would give annual raises of $2,400 to teachers and other […]
They might not care for the image, but Republican members of the N.C. General Assembly act as though they were drunk with power. They have the votes not merely to […]
Compared with some of the provocatively, even outrageously unsuited people whom President Trump has chosen for high office, Neil Gorsuch barely moves the needle. But that’s not to say Americans […]
Groups at the state and national level continue to mobilize around concerns about President-Elect Donald Trump’s stated policy objectives and choices for cabinet posts. The NC NAACP, Interfaith Power & […]
The NC Council of Churches has never taken peace for granted. Indeed, along with our work in opposition to violence, there has long been the recognition that peace manifests itself […]
We work toward a church that is all-loving. That’s what we’ve always done and that’s what we’re going to keep doing. Stay connected with the Council to learn about opportunities […]
Remarks delivered on September 21 by Executive Director Jennifer Copeland at a press conference marking the International Day of Peace. Words make a world. The words we use become embedded […]
Many in our state are celebrating 10 years of no executions and putting out a call for no more killings in our name. Patrick O’Neil a leading abolitionist in our […]
For those of us who want to see North Carolina governed with the interests of all its residents in mind – not mainly the interests of the well-off and privileged […]
The senators and representatives who make up North Carolina’s General Assembly let their 2015 session run on far longer than it should have. Let’s be glad that the curtain has […]
The last person to be put to death by the State of North Carolina – in other words, put to death on behalf of all of us who live here […]
With its self-imposed April 30 “crossover” deadline, the General Assembly can sidetrack bills that haven’t gained enough support to make them worth fussing with during the remainder of the legislative […]
The Council of Churches’ Legislative Seminar – its top-profile public event of the year – is meant to inform, and it’s meant to inspire. We’re not too bashful to say […]
Apparently I scare Civitas. Maybe it’s my upbringing. I was raised by a single mom (my parents divorced when I was a toddler) who was fortunate to have a solid […]
Date: Good Friday – Apr. 18, 2014
Topic: The Death Penalty
Focus Text: John 18:1-19:42
Because Christians have come to understand the cross as a rich symbol of all that God has accomplished in Jesus it is sometimes easy to forget that the symbol of our faith is (or was) also an instrument of torture and execution (it is certainly more than that, but not less). The details of Jesus’ arrest, trial, and crucifixion are a reminder that Jesus did in fact receive a form of capital punishment. As ethicist Glen Stassen writes, “Christians who remember that their Lord was unjustly and cruelly given the death penalty have a hard time being enthusiastic about imposing the death penalty on others.”
It’s now just four weeks until this year’s HKonJ People’s Assembly. There is nothing more important for people of faith to do this winter as we work for prophetic social justice than […]
At the close of a momentous year for politics and public policy in North Carolina – a year that challenged many people of faith to act on their beliefs — […]
The impact of Moral Mondays continues to extend beyond North Carolina. Two recent articles and an editorial in “The New York Times” are reaching a national audience. One of the […]
“Outside agitators.” The very term reminds those of us of a certain age of the Civil Rights Movement, when anybody coming from outside the South to suggest that the South’s […]
Faith leaders from across the state and from different traditions continue to speak out in support of Moral Mondays, the weekly NC NAACP-led demonstrations in Raleigh. Within days of each […]
A brief summary of significant points in the Senate budget with additional commentary by Steve Ford.
A group of clergy members is working to mobilize 1,000 of their colleagues to gather at Raleigh’s Bicentennial Mall on Monday, June 10 at 5 p.m. and raise their voices […]
The death penalty is troubling on many levels. Among them: The public must bear the extraordinary costs associated with death penalty trials and appeals. The penalty’s effectiveness in deterring other […]
The North Carolina NAACP, building on four weeks of Moral Monday demonstrations, has launched a 25-city statewide tour reaching from Elizabeth City to Hendersonville. The Forward Together Movement Local Organizing […]
Moral Mondays continue (though they will take the day off on Memorial Day). This week’s protest had the largest number of participants (around 600) and of people taking part in […]
House Bills Senate Bills Notable Quotes Arizona-like Immigration Bill Introduced In the wake of failed attempts by Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform, states and localities have increased their own […]
A misguided push in the General Assembly to get capital punishment back on track is generating a well-deserved pushback. People of Faith Against the Death Penalty, a group that for […]
Voter Suppression & Campaign Finance Other New Bills Commentary Tax Fairness Public Education Voting Rights Death Penalty Rush to the Right Continues From the first days […]
Our friends at People of Faith Against the Death Penalty have provided a bulletin insert for churches interested in helping work to repeal the death penalty. PFADP, which began as a […]
If you are interested in attending, but have not pre-registered, you may call our office at 919-828-6501 on Tuesday, April 9 until 5:00 p.m. Gene Nichol, Director of the Center […]
For the first time in the modern era, no one was sentenced to death in North Carolina during 2012. The milestone marks a victory for people throughout the state and […]
The General Assembly on Monday overrode Governor Perdue’s vetoes of three bills. By doing so they gutted the Racial Justice Act, revised the budget for 2012-13, and moved ahead with fracking. The outcome was not in doubt in the Senate. In fact, several Senate Democrats had excused absences and didn’t even show up for the votes. The drama was in the House.
The News & Observer
Death penalty opponents and advocates of the state’s Racial Justice Act have embarked on an intense petition drive, letter-writing and email campaign, targeting five Democrats in the state House of Representatives.The goal is to persuade the representatives to sustain the governor’s Thursday veto of the legislature’s overhaul of the Racial Justice Act.
We applaud Governor Beverly Perdue for her veto of a rewritten Racial Justice Act that had been gutted of key provisions. The Council has long worked for fairness in our […]
The following is from the NC Coalition for a Moratorium and the Carolina Justice Policy Center. The fate of the Racial Justice Act probably rests with the three representatives listed […]
The House of Representatives has voted 73-47 to gut the Racial Justice Act. The vote was on S 416, a bill originally about using tire retreads on school buses. The […]
Two time-sensitive issues for advocates: 1) A vote to override the Governor’s veto of the Racial Justice Act could come up any time. 2) There is a lobby day tomorrow […]
The General Assembly leadership is committed to having this short session truly be short, and there’s talk of adjourning by early July. In fact, an adjournment resolution was introduced yesterday with a target date of June 19. This session, which starts in May of even-numbered years, is primarily to tweak the second year of the budget adopted the year before. In addition, certain bills which were introduced last year (mostly ones which passed in one house) can be considered. For a new bill to be introduced this year, it must fit into one of a few specific categories, with most new bills having to do with budgetary matters or coming from a study commission which met during the interim. Finally, pending veto overrides are also thought by the House and Senate leadership to be eligible for consideration.
The lead case applying the historic and ground-breaking NC Racial Justice Act (RJA) concluded today with a judicial finding of race discrimination in the operation of the death penalty in […]
Late this morning, Governor Bev Perdue vetoed the bill which would have gutted the Racial Justice Act (RJA). The RJA is a two-year-old law which allows defendants in death penalty […]
People of Faith Against the Death Penalty notes an important milestone for the state today. It has been five years since North Carolina carried out an execution. The Council has long […]
The 2011 session of the General Assembly adjourned around midday on Saturday, June 18. Legislative leaders and the media are trumpeting the efficiency of the session and the fact that this is the earliest adjournment since 1973. But that is misleading since they aren’t really finished with their work. The adjournment resolution calls them back into a special session on July 13. At that time, they will take up the thorny issue of redistricting as well as controversial bills from the just-ended session which remain in conference committees and any bills vetoed by the Governor.
The Third National Conference on Restorative Justice will bring together academics, community leaders, educators, faith leaders, judges, politicians, policy makers, practitioners and concerned community members to explore the use of […]
As I write this note, it is 12:30PM and I’m sitting comfortably in my office at the NC Council of Churches. At 3PM, though, I will be in the gallery […]
The focus of this issue is a handful of the most important items currently under consideration at the General Assembly. These are issues that are under challenge by the current majorities in both houses.
New bills on the budget, care of creation, criminal justice, election and campaign law, gambling, guns, health and health care, immigration, mental health, developmental disabilities, substance abuse services, public eduction, and taxes.
If there were such a thing as a six o’clock news cast in the first century, Jesus the felon would appear walking down the street escorted by the police of his day—handcuffed—if you will. The announcer would tell us that the vandal who destroyed Temple property and repeatedly broke Jewish laws; the welfare king who relied on the generosity of unsuspecting middle class women to promote his suspicious doctrine; the man known to frequent the establishments of tax collectors and prostitutes—and claimed to be God, had finally been apprehended and was awaiting sentencing. Yes, in the minds of this first century felon’s accusers, he was little more than a common criminal.
There was a great turnout for Saturday’s HKonJ5. Thanks to all of you who attended and marched.
Watch video of HKonJ here.
This is a preliminary report concerning a new study of capital punishment in the State of North Carolina that has been undertaken during the past nine months – the North Carolina Death Penalty Study 2001. It is the first major social scientific study of the death penalty conducted in North Carolina in over 20 years, and the first systematic look for patterns of racial discrimination in capital sentencing in the South employing data more recent than 1984. The report has been prepared by Dr. Robert Unah of the Department of Political Science of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with the assistance of Professor John Charles Boger of the UNC School of Law.
As we will elaborate below, the preliminary findings present clear and disturbing evidence that North Carolina’s capital system in the 1990s continues to exhibit patterns of racial discrimination that cannot be explained by any of the legitimate sentencing considerations that have been sanctioned by North Carolina’s legislative and judicial branches.
This curriculum builds on “The Elephant in the Courtroom: Racism and Criminal Justice in North Carolina,” a policy paper developed by the North Carolina Council of Churches’ 1999-2000 Task Group on Racism and Criminal Justice in North Carolina. The policy paper has been disseminated among policy makers, judges, prison officials, and the media. The Task Group holds, however, that needed change will not happen until ordinary citizens, informed by a sense of fairness as well as an understanding of the nature of community and the power of forgiveness, demand equity in the administration of justice in our country. The curriculum addresses itself to adult education groups in congregations and workshop leaders at ecumenical and denominational meetings. The packet is self-contained and requires only that the leader copy some of the individual readings for the number of participants at the session.
Adopted by the House of Delegates, North Carolina Council of Churches, April 23, 1987 WHEREAS, the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday (April 22, 1987) by a 5 to 4 decision upheld as constitutional the […]
