A group called Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation finds power in telling their own stories to help people rethink the death penalty

[11-21-02]

This note comes to us through Witherspoon Issues Analyst Gene TeSelle, of Nashville, TN

This is why telling the Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation story is so important.

Last night Theeda Murphy and I went to Cookeville, TN to join Hector and Susie Black as they shared their story of losing their daughter two years ago this November 20. We met at the First Presbyterian Church. Wednesday nights are a time for the members to gather and share a meal. Once a month they have a speaker and last night it was to hear an MVFR story. It was a sweet moment as people arrived and saw the Blacks, whom they know as the people with the organic nursery. Everyone in Cookeville and the nearby area have come to purchase fruit, especially blueberries, from Hector at the farmer's market for many years. It became evident that the relationship that they have with the community is one of respect and admiration. So, it was stunning for them to find out that Hector and Susie had lost a daughter two years ago and this was the first they had heard of it. As Hector began the story the group that assembled reacted with a respectful quiet and then a misty eyed embracing of their hurt.

Cookeville is a small town and you would think that Hector and Susie's loss would be well known there. Because their daughter, Trish, was murdered in Atlanta the family did a lot of their work and grieving away from the notice of people in the town where they live. The Quaker community knew and was supportive. Their desire that Ivan Simpson not receive the death penalty and their insistence that Trish's story be a celebration of her life was not, and is still not, understood by many in the family. For those reasons the story has only just begun to be told to their neighbors.

Reactions around the room were not only kind, but the church wanted to know more. A physician that I met before the evening started made a comment about the TCASK brochures I had next to the MVFR material. He said, "You know, this is closely related to the Tenncare issue". As he talked about poor people and their struggle to receive decent health care it was likened to the way that the death penalty is administered. There, in that small, conservative town was a group of folks who were moved to think about the death penalty in a new way because of two people they knew and respected. I would venture to say that the relationships that were on a warm but superficial level were profoundly deepened after last night.

Each time I go and share the facts about the death penalty with an MVFR storyteller, I tend to feel that I am interrupting something. Their story is the focus, yet there is more. Instead of just coughing up a lot of cold facts, Hector and I began a somewhat interactive relaying of the meaning of the MVFR weekend that we had in Nashville recently. It was there that the Blacks first met the family of Robert Coe and heard about the effects of the death penalty from the perspective of the relatives of the executed. The healing that took place, and the birth of what will always be a special relationship, formed when these people shared their common sense of loss and demonstrated their acceptance of each other. That is a story in itself. Our justice system would have them be adversaries for no other reason that to serve itself.

If your church, temple, mosque, or other organization would like to host an MVFR storytelling, please contact me.

Susan McBride

mcbrid_s@bellsouth.net

615-258-2672

GA actions ratified (or not) by  the presbyteries   

A number of the most important actions of the 219^th General Assembly have now been acted upon by the presbyteries, confirming most of them as amendments to the PC(USA) Book of Order.

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