The closer I have come to the death penalty, the more I have grown convinced that it cannot be reconciled with my faith. That faith teaches me to believe in repentance, salvation, and second chances. The death penalty extinguishes any opportunity for such transformation or redemption. My faith counsels the pursuit of reconciliation where there is conflict. The death penalty closes the door to that as well. And my faith guides me to cherish the sanctity of all human life. The death penalty simply cannot be squared with these sacred values.
Rev. Darryl G. Gray
Over the decades I have served as a Baptist minister, I have encountered many situations that tested my faith. One of the most difficult was ministering to a fellow human being at the moment the State of Missouri ended his life through lethal injection.
More recently, I joined dozens of other Missouri faith leaders and more than a million concerned citizens in urging the Governor to spare the life of Marcellus Williams based on strong evidence that he was an innocent man and that racial bias infected his trial. But on September 24, Missouri executed Mr. Williams. Forever scarred by these experiences, I call on President Joe Biden to end this barbaric practice and commute all federal death sentences.
I was heartened in 2020 when President Biden pledged to end the death penalty at the federal level and incentivize the states to follow suit. His Department of Justice has paused federal executions, a welcome change after the 13-execution spree of the Trump Administration. But to date, the President has not otherwise followed through on his promise. And Donald Trump has made no secret about his plans to resume executions immediately upon taking office.
Yet, the cases of the 40 men still on federal death row reveal the same serious errors that infect state death penalty systems. In particular, the federal death penalty starkly reflects capital punishment’s racist legacy.
A group of death penalty opponents stand outside St. Francis Xavier Church during a vigil to protest the death penalty and the scheduled execution of Joseph Paul Franklin on Nov. 19, 2013, in St. Louis, Missouri. (Jeff Roberson/Associated Press)
More than half of the people on federal death row are people of color and nearly 40% are Black men. In the federal system, just as in the states, people of color are more likely to be capitally prosecuted, as are those in cases with white victims. This imbalance strikes close to home for me: there have been three federal death sentences in the modern era from the Eastern District of Missouri, where I live. All three were imposed on Black men convicted in cases with white victims. One of those men was even convicted by an all-white jury.
By commuting all federal death sentences, President Biden will ensure that no federal prisoner faces execution despite being intellectually disabled, mentally incompetent, or convicted in proceedings riddled with racial bias — all of which occurred during the first Trump Administration. Clearing the federal death row also will hold open the door for redemption and reconciliation, creating pathways for healing and acknowledging the human capacity to grow and change. And commuting federal death sentences will prevent the irreparable injustice of executing an innocent human being, a risk that Marcellus Williams’s case teaches us is terrifyingly real.
Though the death penalty has tested my faith, today I have faith that President Biden will do the right thing and grant clemency to all the men on federal death row.
Rev. Darryl G. Gray currently serves as Senior Pastor of the Greater Fairfax Missionary Baptist Church in St Louis, Missouri and as Director General for Social Justice of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc.
