By Roger Alford
The Associated Press

ASHLAND, Ky. - On Sundays, gospel preacher J. Stewart Schneider tries to lead lost souls to redemption. Monday through Friday, in his other job as a prosecutor, he tries to send some of the same people to prison.

In this Bible Belt community, Schneider was always able to reconcile the two roles - until he was faced with a murder case that would have put him in the position of arguing for the death penalty.

That was a line he couldn't cross. He turned the case over to a prosecutor in a neighboring county.

"If I preach on Sunday God's commandment to love everybody, how can I then on Monday tell a jury of 12 people that it's OK to kill someone?" Schneider asked, stroking his graying brown beard. "If we kill someone, we cut off God's plan for that person's redemption."

The dilemma of preaching prosecutors is hardly unusual in the rural South, where preachers often hold secular jobs.

George Moore, a Presbyterian lay pastor and commonwealth's attorney from Mount Sterling, said he has come to terms with his support of the death penalty.

"While I probably agree it would be a better world if we didn't have to have the death penalty, I am comfortable with the fact that that is the law," Moore said. "The question is more complex than do I favor or oppose the death penalty. The question is: Is this something I can do without violating my faith structure?"

Barbara Maines Whaley, an ordained United Methodist minister who serves as special prosecutor in the Kentucky Attorney General's Office, has wrestled with the issue and concluded that the death penalty is sometimes necessary. She has prosecuted six death penalty cases, sending two convicted murderers to death row, one of whom later had his sentenced reduced to life without parole.

Schneider said he has heard all the scriptural and legal debates. But his role as minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) won out over that of Boyd County commonwealth's attorney. And if his decision prevents him from winning another term, so be it.

"Christianity's message of love for all is more powerful than the need for vengeance," he said. "We kill and we kill and we kill. We bomb and we bomb and we bomb. Yet, 2,000 years ago, a guy in sandals said love one another."

Schneider, 57, who has been the top prosecutor in this northeastern Kentucky county since 1993, was sharply criticized for his decision and the head of the state association of prosecutors even called for his resignation.

Some said Schneider was trying to have it both ways. He had the power to seek only life prison sentences in the case, yet he is letting another prosecutor seek the death penalty for what all agree was a brutal crime.

Patrick Campbell and Jonathon Nolan are charged with murdering a couple during a break-in, then setting their house on fire to destroy the evidence. Phillip and Shonda Booth's two children, ages 4 and 8, were home at the time of the May 24 fire but escaped with minor injuries.

Catlettsburg Mayor Roger Hensley said people have mixed feelings about Schneider's decision to step aside from the case.

"Some people agree with his decision. Some people say he's not doing the job he was elected for," Hensley said. "I can see his religious convictions, but, to me, he should have thought of this before he ever ran for office."

Schneider said he believes putting murderers in prison where they no longer pose a threat to society is sufficient.