With the execution of Sedley Alley imminent, we held vigils and prayer services all around the state on Tuesday evening. One of these events was an ecumenical service at Evergreen Presbyterian Church in Memphis. At that service, the Reverend Amy Howe offered a moving reflection on the death penalty. It's a beautiful piece that we can all benefit from reading, so it's posted below:

Reflection on the Lives of Suzanne Marie Collins and Sedley Alley

Suzanne Marie Collins was nineteen years old when an act of violence took her life. She was someone’s daughter, someone’s friend, someone’s employee. She had a childhood and dreamed of a future. She played softball as a young girl and traveled extensively as the daughter of a U.S. diplomat. She was athletic and courageous and ambitious. Her dream was to be the first female Marine to fly jets. She was well on her way to making her dream come true. She was a Lance Corporal in the Marines and was just twenty-four hours away from graduating from the Avionics Training Program at the Millington Naval Base. She was a precious child of God out for an evening jog on the evening of July 12, 1985 when she was murdered. Her body was left in a field, bruised and bloodied and eternally cold. We will never know if she would have been the first female Marine to fly jets. We will never know if she would have found love and marriage. We will never know if she would have been a mother or a grandmother. Her parents live with an open wound in their hearts that never heals. Tonight we remember this young woman who was denied a future. We find comfort in knowing that she rests in the embrace of our loving God. We celebrate the life of Suzanne Marie Collins and weep for all that was meant to be and will never be.

Sedley Alley was thirty-nine years old in 1985. I don’t know very much about this man. In 1985 he was a married man; he is 50 years old today. I know he first confessed to murdering Suzanne Marie Collins but then said his confession had been coerced. He was born to a mother and father. He had a childhood. I don’t know if it was a happy or troubled childhood. I don’t know what his plans for the future were. I do know tonight he sits in an eighty square foot cell known as the death watch cell. His home has a cot, a toilet, a desk with a stool and a narrow vertical window. I would imagine that time has become very dear to him. Minutes race by as if they were seconds. He was scheduled to die at 1:00 May, 17th, 2006. With less than twenty-four hours to go before his scheduled death, Mr. Alley heard that he had received a fifteen day stay. I have a feeling that minutes will still race by, time is dear to him. I do not know if Sedley Alley murdered Suzanne Marie Collins. But I do know who will kill Sedley Alley if the stay is lifted in fifteen days and Mr. Alley is given a lethal injection.

“Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness.” What a gift God gave us when God gave us life that we are made in the very image of our Creator. We are made good. Life is a most precious gift. It is so precious that even when Cain disrupts the good order by taking the life of his brother, God acts with mercy. Abel did not deserve to die. Cain is punished for surely there are consequences to such a vile crime. Cain cries out, “My punishment is greater than I can bear! …I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and anyone who meets me may kill me.” God comforts Cain, “Not so! Whoever kills Cain will suffer a seven fold vengeance.” Out of mercy and love for God’s creature, God marks Cain so that no one can harm him. Suzanne Marie Collins did not deserve to die. Her life was most precious to her Creator. Perhaps some have missed the mark on Sedley Alley that proclaims that he belongs to God and no one should harm him.

Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” When a woman who was caught in the very act of adultery, a capital crime, was brought before Jesus, he did not pick up a stone. He wrote in the sand and said to the angry crowd, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Apparently, no one fit that bill. For as Paul has told us, “We all fall short.” We all sin. Jesus, sinless, did not pick up a stone, how can we? Sedley Alley very well may be our enemy. He very well may need to be banished, put behind bars forever. But we are called to love him and pray for him. I cannot inject him with a lethal combination of drugs, today’s stones.

Let us pray, Merciful God, your children are crying tonight. We are weeping for the life lost of Suzanne Marie Collins. Her parents cry out for justice. We cry out for justice. We are weeping for the threatened loss of life for Sedley Alley. His parents cry out for mercy. We cry out for mercy. Our world is so broken, violence and brutality surround us. People are hungry, sad, addicted, hopeless, sick. We pray for all victims of violence. We pray for all systems that do violence to individuals. We pray for families that are grieving. We pray for mercy on the hands that would take the life of Sedley Alley. Lord, please stay the hands of those who might throw stones, stay them longer than fifteen days. Lord, help us love even our most frightening enemy. We pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.