As this is being written, the state of North Carolina is considering a two-year moratorium on the death penalty. The state house is expected to take a vote on the proposed legislation the first week of June. A spokesperson for the governor has said, “If such a bill is passed, the governor will give it careful review.” However, in a major newspaper the previous week, the governor is quoted as saying, “The state doesn’t need it [the moratorium].”

The death penalty has been cussed and discussed, despised and defended all across the nation since its inception. Is it a deterrent to crime? Is it ignored by those who would commit a capital crime? Are there conditions that warrant the state taking another’s life? Are there any conditions that could possibly condone one person taking the life of another?

Issues concerning the death penalty have been debated by Methodists for years. All of his life, John Wesley visited jails and prisons. On the day after Christmas, 1784, he preached a sermon to condemned criminals in the town of Newgate. Forty-seven were under the sentence of death, and Wesley was preaching to these condemned men. “While they were coming in,” Wesley reported in his journal, “there was something very awful in the clink of their chains.” However, it is reported that no sound was heard, either from the prisoners, or the crowded audience, after the text was named. Wesley’s topic was, “There is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, that need not repentance.” ( Luke 15.7)

The power of the Lord was eminently present, and most of the prisoners were in tears. A few days later, 20 of the prisoners were executed at once. Wesley went on to report that five of the 20 died in peace.


Craven E. Williams
President
Greensboro College