Hundreds of students and community members left their signatures on white cards before leaving Gonzaga University Friday night, expressing to state legislatures that they don’t want Washington to be a “killing a state.”
Sister Helen Prejean, best-selling author and human rights activist, will speak about the death penalty at Gonzaga University on Oct. 11 in a program titled, “The Journey Toward Justice.” Her lecture follows a 7 p.m. performance of a one-act play “Dead Man Walking,” a reading adapted from the Oscar-nominated film by the same name, according to a Gonzaga press release.
Spokane author Victoria Ann Thorpe, and a small group of supporters, began a 185-mile “Peace Journey” across the state Tuesday night — hoping their steps will lead to the end of the death penalty in Washington.
My question is: does the LDS church have an official stand on capital punishment? Is there also a general belief system you could speak to on executions from a Mormon point of view?
Beginning Sept. 3 Spokane resident Victoria Thorpe will lead an 18 and-a-half-day walk across the state to advocate for the abolition of the death penalty.
"Its purpose is to draw attention to the failure of the death penalty system; not only on the factual level, but as a tool designed to preserve our humanity it has only taken us further away," she said in a letter.
On June 5, at St. John’s Cathedral, five faiths were represented from a panel focusing on this specific question: Should Washington State abolish the death penalty?
This was a forum specially organized to address the issue from religious perspectives.