On Saturday morning, several members of the March4Mercy movement walked from the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution to the Legislative Plaza in Nashville, bringing attention to a request many current death row inmates have for our governor: to pray with them.
On June 6, 32 of the 55-remaining male, death-row inmates signed a letter they wrote to Governor Bill Lee.
“They heard he was a man of faith and said, ‘why don't we just ask him to come out and pray with us?’” says marcher Dan Mann.
The letter is just one sentence, simply asking him to join them in prayer.
Dan Mann is with the March4Mercy, and he and his wife visit death row inmates about twice a month.
“It's an eye-opening and mind-blowing experience to go in and meet guys who are just like you and me.”
He says they work to humanize these inmates, saying they shouldn't be judged only by the worst thing they did in their lives.
“Jesus said, 'when I was in prison you came and visited me,' and that is their request,” says author and activist Shane Claiborne.
He says meeting with the inmates can transform a person.
“I grew up, a lot of my life, in support of the death penalty. But it's when I began to meet people directly impacted by the death penalty that my heart started to change,” he says.
The group advocates against capital punishment.
“Killing is the disease, but not the cure,” Claiborne says.
They believe they can honor the victims and push for justice without more violence.
They say they need support and need regular, every day citizens to advocate for pro-life choices.
“Pro-life, to me, doesn't just mean anti-abortion. It means I want to be pro-life on every other issue too: I care about the death penalty, I care about immigration, and I care about the environment,” he says.
The governor, however, still has not responded to the prayer request.
“Over the course of a month, two months, three months and you don't hear anything, yeah, it's a little demoralizing,” Mann explains.
As a result, the group will wait outside of the governor’s office for two, full days and nights to personally deliver the letter.
Source: fox17.com, Aj Abell, August 11, 2019
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
