Spiritual Perspectives
The Question of the Death Penalty

By Mark Elliott
Special to The Independent

Mark Elliot

On Tuesday, Feb. 8, I attended the Gallup Group to Repeal the Death Penalty. It was said that there are clergy in the Gallup area that are for the death penalty. I found that very difficult to believe.

There was a time in which a great-grandfather of mine, Daniel Elliot, had his dealings with such a clergyman. As my research has shown, this clergyman, Samuel Paris, propagated the execution of many an innocent person. Records show Daniel testified in defense of an innocent woman, an Elizabeth Proctor. She did not get executed because she was with child, but her husband John did. Their story may be found in "The Crucible," a play by the late Arthur Miller.

At the time, there was a Quaker merchant, Thomas Maule, who lived in the House of Seven Gables (a main attraction in Salem, Mass.). He spoke out against the execution of these people to the point that he was tried for seditious libel, but he was acquitted. He took the position that it is wrong to execute people for witchcraft (except in cases of murder), and he also questioned the reliability of the alleged confessions.

Also, on June 1, 1660, Mary Barrett Dyer, an English Quaker, was hung in Boston for repeatedly defying a law banning Quakers from the colony. She is considered to be the last religious martyr in North America.

When I lived in Utah, executions had been stopped for a number of years. However, supporters of the death penalty brought it back to Utah and executed Gary Mark Gilmore. Likewise, in New Mexico, Terry Clark, a white male on death row who wanted to be executed, was the first to be executed in the state after a lapse in executions. Do you think Utah has just executed white males since Gilmore? Do you think if New Mexico retains the death penalty, it will only execute white males like Clark who want to be executed?

As a citizen of these states in which execution takes place, I become one of the killers. And if an innocent individual is executed by my state government, I will become a murderer. If the state executes, it condones killing as a solution to problems. Some people may be learning from their state government that killing is the way to solve their problems. It is found that those states which have the death penalty also have a higher level of violent crimes.

There are a number of civilized nations in the world, inclusive of the indigenous nations in this area such as the Navajo and Zuni, which do not condone the death penalty. The State of New Mexico could easily show it feels the same way by repealing the death penalty.

If you do not want to be a part of any future executions and feel that life in prison without parole is a more humane solution for the State of New Mexico, you may want to contact your state representatives and governor and voice your opinion. Of course, if you're one of the people in this country who supports the death penalty, you may want to express yourself otherwise.

Mark Elliott is a mathematics instructor for Gallup High School and UNM-Gallup. He also attends the Gallup Friends (Quaker) Worship Group which meets at noon on the First Day (Sunday) at the Red Mesa Center, located next to the Octavia Fellin Public Library. For information about the group, call 863-0262 or 722-9497 or write gallupfriends@gmail.com.

This column is the result of a desire by community members, representing different faith communities, wishing to share their ideas about bringing a spiritual perspective into our daily lives and community issues.

For information about contributing a guest column, contact Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola at the Independent: (505) 863-8611, ext. 218 or lizreligion01@yahoo.com.