A group of Arkansas faith leaders on Thursday urged Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders not to resume executions under a new law that allows the use of nitrogen gas suffocation as a method of capital punishment.
Seven clergy members representing multiple Christian denominations held a news conference at the state Capitol before delivering a letter signed by 43 faith leaders including 41 Christians, one Jewish leader and one Buddhist asking Sanders to reconsider the law and the death penalty itself.
“Together we prayerfully urge you to investigate the problems associated with execution by means of gas suffocation and continue to recognize the value of every human life,” the letter said.
Arkansas became the fifth state to permit nitrogen hypoxia executions after lawmakers and Sanders approved Act 302 earlier this year. The state has not carried out an execution since 2017, when four men were put to death in a week before the state’s lethal injection drug supply expired. About two dozen inmates remain on Arkansas’ death row.
Ten inmates filed a lawsuit against Act 302 this month, arguing the law gives the corrections department “unfettered discretion” to choose execution methods without clear standards and improperly alters judicial sentencing.
At Thursday’s event, clergy leaders presented moral objections to capital punishment. The Rev. Phillip Reaves, prison ministry director for the Catholic Diocese of Little Rock, said all people are made in God’s image, “even people who have done horrific things.”
Rev. Denise Donnell of New Beginnings Church of Central Arkansas pointed to racial disparities in the death penalty’s application, saying southern executions echo the history of lynching.
Other speakers, including Methodist minister Rev. Hammett Evans and Baptist pastor Preston Clegg, framed their opposition in theological terms. Evans said, “The state executed God’s son, and God was so opposed to that execution that God raised Jesus from the dead. The Resurrection was God’s ultimate no’ to the death penalty.”
The clergy also cited Alabama’s January 2024 execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith by nitrogen gas, which witnesses described as violent and chaotic, as evidence of risks with the method.
The group’s letter called on the state to redirect resources toward child abuse prevention, mental health and substance abuse treatment, and community safety programs.
Jennifer Siccardi, a receptionist in Sanders’ office, accepted the letter on the governor’s behalf.
For the original story visit Arkansas Advocate.
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