November 28, 2005
Governor Mark Sanford
Office of the Governor
Columbia, South Carolina
Dear Governor Sanford:
We are writing to implore you to show mercy by granting Executive Clemency to Shawn Paul Humphries. Mr. Humphries is scheduled to be executed in the name of all of the people of South Carolina on Friday, December 2, 2005 in revenge for his murder of Mendal Alton "Dickie" Smith.
Governor Sanford, we pray for and remember the victims of homicide and their families. We pray for and remember Mendal Smith. But an execution will not bring him back, and it will bring no comfort to his family. Instead, an execution will create more suffering, both in the family of the victim who has been promised some sort of unattainable closure with an execution, and also in the family of Mr. Humphries. There has been enough killing, Governor Sanford. There has been too much suffering already.
As leaders of the South Carolina Christian Action Council, our concern in this case is moral, but it is also pragmatic and secular. While it was a terrible crime, this case should never have been considered for the death penalty. It was an attempted armed robbery by a man who was under the influence of drugs and alcohol. The victim reached for a gun and the defendant fired one time and ran. Of the hundreds of tragic murders that take place every year in South Carolina this was clearly not the worst of the worst.
In fact, of all of the people who commit murder in South Carolina, who are caught, who are eligible for the death penalty, THE VAST MAJORITY DO NOT GET THE DEATH PENALTY. Most murderers get the alternative sentence of Life without Parole. In our state, as in the nation, far less than 1% of the killers who could be executed actually do get executed. If we must have executions in South Carolina, then we need to use it very rarely, and only in the worst cases. This case is not a death penalty case.
