Context:

The Honorable Brad Little, Governor of Idaho,

I represent the Northwest Intermountain Synod (NWIMS) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). We are Lutherans from congregations in Idaho, Eastern Oregon, Eastern Washington, and Western Wyoming. I am writing to you to express our opposition to Idaho’s use of the death penalty as a form of punishment. 

We object to the use of the death penalty because it is not used fairly and has failed to make society safer. According to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), defendants are much less likely to be sentenced to death when they are represented by qualified lawyers who are provided sufficient time and resources to present a strong defense. In addition, studies show no link between the presence or absence of the death penalty and murder rates.

According to a 2023 Gallup poll more Americans believe the death penalty is applied unfairly (50%) than fairly (47%). The same 2023 Gallup survey found that 53% of Americans favor the death penalty, the lowest number since March 1972. Public support for the death penalty peaked in 1994, with 80% of Americans in favor, but has steadily declined since that year.

The methods used to perform capital punishment are inhumane. Lethal injection is the most common method of execution and is often considered the most humane. In a multi-drug execution, the first drug puts the prisoner to sleep while the second drug stops the heart. However, there are cases where lethal injections are botched because medical ethics preclude doctors from participating in executions, according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). Idaho House Bill 186, introduced in 2023, adds the firing squad as an alternative method of execution if lethal injection drugs aren’t available. Firing squads involve multiple persons aiming rifles at a person’s heart. One shooter is given a blank round to provide uncertainty as to who fired a fatal shot. If the shooters miss the heart, by accident or intention, the prisoner bleeds to death slowly. Therefore, this method of execution is considered less humane than lethal injection.

As Christians and followers of the teachings of Jesus Christ we believe that all lives deserve compassion. The bible teaches us that we are all born into sin. When Jesus is asked whether it is appropriate to stone a woman who has committed adultery, which was a sin punishable by death according to the law of Moses, he replied as follows:

Biblical Reference: John 8:5-7 – ⁵ Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”⁶They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. ⁷ When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

We believe that the death penalty is an inhumane form of punishment. We also believe that there is enough opportunities for errors in evidence collection, witness recollections, coerced confessions, mistakes made by defense lawyers, and later surfacing DNA evidence that some murder convictions have the possibility to be overturned. Since 1973, more than 195 people have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence. An average of 3.94 wrongly convicted death-row prisoners have been exonerated each year since 1973. In addition, there are 20 cases where a death row inmate has been executed and subsequently evidence has been found that likely would have exonerated them.

During the current Idaho legislative session there has been a bill introduced, House Bill 515, to expand usage of the death penalty to cases where murder is not the charge, such as lewd conduct with a minor under the age of 12. With advances in artificial intelligence it is easy to imagine someone doctoring evidence against another person that could result in that person being convicted of a crime they did not commit. 

Executing someone is a final sentence that is irreversible. There is no recourse if the prisoner is found innocent after they have been executed. Families of a murdered person are not the only people impacted by crimes punishable with the death penalty. The families of those executed are equally impacted.

Based on this information and the teachings of Jesus Christ we recommend that the State of Idaho replace the death penalty sentence for murder cases with a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Resources:

Death Penalty Information Center web site: https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/

ELCA statement on death penalty (1991): 

https://www.elca.org/Faith/Faith-and-Society/Social-Statements/Death-Penalty

Innocence Project: https://innocenceproject.org/

DPIC podcasts: https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/resources/podcasts

Rev Meggan H Manlove, Bishop of the NWIM Synod

(My deep thanks to Glenn McGeoch, member of Hope Lutheran in Eagle, Idaho for drafting this letter for our synod.)