Wednesday, August 25, 1999
Marchers protest Ohio death penalty
BY PAUL SOUHRADA
The Associated Press
COLUMBUS — Hundreds of sign-carrying protesters, mostly Roman Catholic nuns in town for a conference, marched through downtown Tuesday to take an anti-death penalty message to lawmakers at the Statehouse: “Don't kill for me.”
“Every human being should have the opportunity to be forgiven and to ask for forgiveness right up to the moment of their death,” explained Sister Jane Keegan, a member of the Sisters of the Divine Compassion order in White Plains, N.Y.
Sister Keegan was in town to take part in the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, a convention drawing nuns from around the country.
Not all the protesters were Catholic. Members of Amnesty International, the Ohio Council of Churches, Ohioans to Stop Executions and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People also participated in the march and rally.
Gary Witte, a member of the Broad Street United Methodist Church in Columbus, carried a sign that read, “Stop the Cries of Crucify Him” as he prepared to join the march.
“Killing people is awful,” Mr. Witte said as he handed out signs to fellow marchers. “We kill something in ourselves as well.”
Police stopped traffic along a busy downtown street to accommodate the line of protesters, which stretched for three blocks. The marchers, four or five abreast, walked silently through a steady rain for most of the half-mile route. A few sang “We Shall Overcome,” though with new, anti-death penalty verses.
John and Madrice Wolbert of Delaware observed the procession from their minivan, where they were stuck waiting for the marchers to clear the intersection.
“They have a right to their opinion, but I wonder how they would feel if their families were killed,” said John Wolbert.
“If I were on a jury, I would have a hard time sentencing someone to death,” Madrice Wolbert interjected from the passenger seat. “But I guess it depends. It's not high on my list of things to think about.”
Raising the level of public awareness is key to abolishing the death penalty, Sister Helen Prejean, the outspoken capital punishment opponent who inspired the movie Dead Man Walking, told the group when it reached the Statehouse.
“The death penalty is not a peripheral issue,” Sister Prejean said. “The death penalty gets to the heart of who we are as a people.”
She urged those gathered on the Statehouse steps and lawn to work to change others' perception of the death penalty, promising that a gradual erosion of public support would eventually lead to its abolition.
Ohio resumed the death penalty in February, with Wilford Berry becoming the first inmate in the state be executed in 36 years.
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