The Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas has had a long historical concern for human development. Our teaching on holiness upholds the sanctity of human life, the care of the individual and the advancing the moral quality of society as evidenced in our teaching on Scriptural Holiness. The Doctrinal Standards of our Church states:

… “It ever remembers that in the Providence of God Methodism was raised up to spread Scriptural Holiness through the land and to reform the nations by the proclamation of the Evangelical Faith and declares it unfaltering resolve to be true to its divinely appointed mission…” (Deed of Church Order 3)

The Church recognises that references are made to the Old Testament’s concept of the retribution principle as the Christian standard applying to capital punishment and urges the weighing of such principles against the teaching of Jesus Christ as evidenced in the Gospels (Matthew 5:21, Matthew 5:43). Biblical references used in support of the death- penalty must be studied and the principle understood in the light of its historical context and not simply transferred to our present-day situation.

The MCCA acknowledges the very serious personal, familial and societal ramifications of the capital offence. Research has shown that the use of capital punishment as a deterrent conveys that state sponsored violence is accepted and may result in the escalation of violence within communities. We are of the view that the use of capital punishment as a deterrent only adds to a feeling of escalating violence in communities.

Based on the foregoing, it is imperative that Methodists and the wider community ponder on the following issues arising from the imposition of the death penalty:

1. The belief that the murderer is not beyond redemption and can be changed by God’s grace.
2. The disregard for the sanctity of human life and its further devaluing when the state legislates death as an act of justice.
3. An act of execution makes it impossible to reverse a miscarriage of justice.
4. The lack of evidence from research to substantiate the claim of the effectiveness of capital punishment as a deterrent.
5. The suggestion that the execution of a condemned person is the only care that society can extend to those who have lost loved ones through murder.
6. The preempting of the opportunity for forgiveness and reconciliation within the society in response to those who have committed murder.

Therefore the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas emphatically calls on all Governments, especially governments of the Caribbean that still actively pursue the death penalty to desist from carrying out executions and to move towards abolishment of the Act.