The Rev. Jason Wells’s hands were shaking from the cold Friday morning as he tried repeatedly pushing down on his lighter’s igniter to make a flame.
His candle wouldn’t light. The Pembroke, N.H., pastor tried turning away from the Statehouse to shield it from the wind. Still, all he got was sparks.
“We’ll call it poetic,” he said, finally giving up on the lighter and the candle. “The light going out with the governor’s death penalty repeal veto.”
Wells was standing in front of Gov. Chris Sununu’s parking spot as part of a vigil in solidarity with other local religious leaders, candles and decorated signs in hand, in support of the death penalty repeal, House Bill 455.
Sununu vetoed the bill in Manchester while Wells and his group were protesting — something that didn’t come as much of a surprise to Wells.
“It’s what we expected to happen today,” said Wells, who said he heard on Thursday night that Sununu was likely to veto the bill on Friday. “We’ll just have to keep our hope.”
The death penalty repeal bill passed the House and Senate and headed to Sununu’s desk on Wednesday. Wells said the group had planned to stand there as Sununu walked into the building to begin his work day. The goal was to wait there starting at 7 a.m. every day after Wednesday until Sununu either signed or vetoed.
Wells said at least 10 denominations of Christianity in the state had made statements against the death penalty. It’s a trend that’s also reflected nationally and internationally in the religion, Wells said.
Just this past August, Pope Francis changed the Catholic Church’s position on the death penalty from permitting it in very rare circumstances to now deeming it completely “inadmissible” and in violation of the “dignity of the person.”
Wells said for him, it comes down to the belief that people — even the ones who do horrible things — can be rehabilitated and change over time.
“The death penalty has within it the idea that a person charged with a crime has become so wayward or corrupt that they can never change, that society must be done with that person,” Wells said. “I have heard that statement made in the House criminal justice committee by our representatives. As a Christian, I must reject that claim.”
He said it shouldn’t be up to human beings to decide if someone is beyond hope, Wells said.
“Once you administer that death penalty, you’ve said, ‘We knew better than God whether this person could be changed or redeemed,’ which is a problem for any Christian to face,” Wells said.
Claudia Istel, of Ackworth, N.H., said Christians are commanded to love others as they love God and themselves. They also are commanded not to kill, she said.
“When we give permission to the state to kill, we’re giving permission to the state to kill in our name,” she said. “That’s not acceptable.”
The death penalty repeal bill would change the current law to say that those who commit severe crimes, like murder, are punishable by life imprisonment without parole, instead of the death penalty — something that sounds more reasonable to Istel.
“There are heinous crimes and we want to be able to say they need to be punished in a severe way, but I don’t believe that acting in the manner of the perpetrator of the crime is a solution,” she said.
Tom Westheimer, of Peterborough, N.H., who also held a sign outside the Statehouse, said he isn’t affiliated with any religion. He said he thinks the death penalty is a moral issue.
He said he’s seen bipartisan support increase every year for death penalty repeal. With a majority indicating their support to override Sununu’s veto this legislative season, he’s hopeful.
“Every year is getting better and better,” he said. “I think it could happen this year, I also think that there are forces that may try to fight it, as they have year after year after year.”