Stated clerk opposes execution of McVeigh
The Layman Online, May 17, 2001
Timothy McVeigh, who murdered 169 men, women and children in the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City, should not be executed, says Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
McVeigh, whose execution is scheduled June 11 in Indianapolis, Ind., has described the children he murdered as “collateral damage.”
Kirkpatrick, in a letter also signed by 80 other people from a variety of religions, asks President George W. Bush to impose a moratorium on federal executions, using life imprisonment as punishment instead.
McVeigh’s death by lethal injection is scheduled to be the first federal execution since 1963.
Among those signing the letter with Kirkpatrick are the Rev. Robert Edgar of the National Council of Churches, representatives of a number of mainline Protestant denominations, representatives of Jewish organizations and some religion editors.
The 1985 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) adopted a statement opposing the death penalty.