Southern governors must reckon with the death penalty
Caroline MolloyOver the past seven months, I have been directly involved in three death penalty cases that compelled Southern, white, conservative, Christian governors to confront the profound moral and legal questions surrounding individuals facing capital punishment.
In Oklahoma, Governor Kevin Stitt commuted the death sentence of Tremane Wood. In Alabama, Governor Kay Ivey granted clemency to Charles “Sonny” Burton, commuting his death sentence to life without parole, and in Tennessee, Governor Bill Lee halted the execution of Tony Carruthers after a seriously botched execution attempt and granted a one-year reprieve.
The South remains the region most responsible for carrying out executions in the United States, and the death penalty’s roots are deep. Still, for many Southerners, their understanding of justice is informed first not by politics or policy, but by their religious leaders and institutions.
So, as more and more religious bodies have created resolutions and statements condemning the death penalty, like Baptist, Catholic, Presbyterian and Unitarian conferences, we are seeing those changes reflected in changing attitudes in the pews. As a Black woman leading faith-based death penalty abolition work in the South, I am witnessing this shift first-hand.
Nearly all current U.S. governors publicly identify with a religious tradition, and the vast majority identify as Christian. The South remains the bible belt of those who proclaim to be churchgoers and the death belt of those sustaining executions in America.
Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, the overwhelming majority of executions have occurred not in lesser religious Northern states, but in deeply religious Southern states like Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Tennessee, and Florida. These few states alone continue to drive the nation’s use of capital punishment. Recent data also shows that many people who were executed in the South have had nearly all-white juries or suffered from significant intellectual impairments, severe mental illness, or histories of severe childhood trauma.
The South has an opportunity to embrace a culture of life and end executions that are plagued by bias and outdated practices. The death penalty is not a deterrent to crime, it is incredibly fiscally irresponsible, DNA remains untested in many cases, and frequent botched executions show how unprepared states are to carry out state killing. I have learned from my interactions with the community that the death penalty does not heal many victims’ families, reverse harm, or improve community safety.
