RALEIGH, N.C. - Marsh Hardy stood on the side of the highway holding a sign that read "End the Racist Death Penalty" outside Raleigh's Central Prison Monday. The Raleigh resident was one of eight protesters, ages 11 to 88, who gathered outside the prison to protest North Carolina's executions at a weekly vigil.
"That sign draws a lot of attention," said Raleigh veterinarian Roberta Mothershead, indicating Hardy's poster. "You are more likely to get the death penalty if you kill a white person."
Mothershead has been attending the death penalty vigils every Monday outside the prison since they began about three years ago. She is a member of Nazareth House Catholic Worker, an organization that works to provide hospitality to the families and friends of people on death row. The group also holds vigils against violence at murder sites and extends support to victims' families. Mothershead also makes birthday cards for the inmates on death row.
"Our belief is that if we can maintain a constant nonviolent presence, we can reduce the violence that exists in the world," Mothershead said.
The protest usually draws between five and 12 participants, Hardy said. He added that occasionally larger groups from colleges like North Carolina State University or high schools like St. Mary's School in Raleigh will join in, and sometimes passing drivers or pedestrians will stop and pick up a sign.
Jacob Case, 11, got started with protesting at age 6, banging on a tin can in a city march and chanting "Don't attack Iraq," protester Duane Adkinson said.
At the vigil, Case carried a sign that read, "Some day we shall live under a government that refuses to kill its citizens," a quote from the late Rev. William Finlator, a pastor and political activist during the civil rights movement.
Protesters cited a number of recent issues that have affected lethal injection policies in the state. In January 2007, the North Carolina Medical Board adopted a policy stating that it is unethical to be involved in the death of a person, and anyone in the medical profession who was involved could lose their license. The state Department of Correction responded in March 2007 by suing the board. The case will come before the North Carolina Supreme Court Nov. 18.
In early 2007, N.C. Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens ruled that N.C. does not have a legal protocol for executions, objecting to the state's requirement that a physician be present. The ruling resulted in a de facto halt to lethal injection until policies are developed.
Mothershead said the legality and humaneness of injections has also been challenged in court, with veterinarians testifying that they would not use the combination of chemicals used in lethal injection to put animals to sleep. She added that new developments for N.C.'s death penalty policy should come soon, as some of the court cases resolve.
"At one time [the death penalty] might have been the only solution that was workable, but now we have a way of keeping people separated from society," she said, gesturing toward the prison behind her.
Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Michael Munger, professor and chair of Duke's political science deparment, is opposed to the death penalty, but opponents Pat McCrory, Republican Charlotte mayor, and Democrat Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue support it.
The weekly protest has drawn its share of criticism and even verbal attacks. At a recent vigil, a man who opposed the protesters' labeling of the N.C. death penalty as racist walked up to the group and began verbally harrassing them, Hardy said.
Adkinson, who is a member of People of Faith Against the Death Penalty, an interfaith organization that works to abolish the death penalty in the U.S., said his reasons for protesting are rooted in his beliefs.
"I just really believe that killing humans is always wrong," he said. "And the death penalty is the ultimate form of premeditated murder."
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