Rev Dr Jeff Hood met Steven Nelson, convicted for the murder of a church pastor, on death row in Texas. Steven protested his innocence until the end, but whatever the truth of his case, he should not have been executed, says Hood. We are not righteous enough to judge someone else in that way
When I met Steven Nelson, there were no lights, no reporters and no cameras. Immediately, it was clear that he was much quieter than the headlines I’d read about him. Of course, I’d encountered misleading headlines before. If you want to know the truth, you must always go deeper. Immediately, it was clear that Steven had been hardened by a lifetime of broken promises and dreams. That’s where I found him, but that’s not where we stayed. In time, we grew to love each other very much.
But in the background, there were always the headlines.
On death row
In a highly publicised trial, Steven was convicted of the brutal murder of Rev Clint Dobson (suffocated to death with a plastic bag) and the assault of church secretary, Judy Elliott (beaten mercilessly) at NorthPointe Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas during an attempted robbery. In addition, Steven committed a variety of infractions while imprisoned at the Tarrant County Jail, and was also a suspect in the murder of a fellow inmate, Jonathan Holden.
Details such as these are more likely to elicit horror than compassion. But truth is always more complicated than either our dreams or our dichotomies.
You can’t love your neighbour and kill them at the same time.
When I first encounter people that I’m working with on death row, I don’t go directly to the crime. Who would want to begin a relationship talking about the worst thing they’d ever done? Truth be known, I care more about the person. I guess I can’t help but recall the words of Jesus in Luke 9:60: “Let the dead bury the dead.” My responsibility is to the living.
However, the crime never stays hidden for long.
Steven described the crime very differently than the headlines. Instead of being the lone perpetrator, he said he was the lookout. He recalled only seeing the bodies of Rev Dobson and Judy Elliott one time, when he went in to steal some items out of the church. Steven said that he didn’t even know that Dobson had died until he saw it on the news. Such a story is a far cry from the ruthless barbarism described in the press. With regard to the numerous incidences in jail, Steven described himself as someone desperately trying to resist the oppression and injustice that surrounded him. He said that Jonathan Holden committed suicide, and that he had nothing to do with it.
Truth and love
So, what’s the truth? I still don’t know. I’m not sure anybody does. I’m suspicious of the headlines, but unaware of the location of the irrefutable evidence necessary to prove them wrong. It’s here that most people get lost. We demand answers at the expense of what we know to be most true: love.
Just like I do with all the people on death row that I work with, I fought very hard to try and save the mortal life of Steven Nelson. The greatest enemy I faced was First Baptist Church of Arlington, Rev Dobson’s former employer. A body of followers of Jesus were the biggest supporters of Steven’s execution.
You do not have to look too far into scripture to figure out why the death penalty is an apostasy of the highest order. Jesus commands in Mark 12:31: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” You can’t love your neighbour and kill them at the same time. Jesus only attended one execution besides his own, in John 8:1-11 - and he placed his very body between the woman accused of adultery and her executioners. If the stones had started flying, Jesus was prepared to die with her.
The lines that Jesus uttered have rung down through the ages: “Let the one who is without sin throw the first stone.” I read this passage as the State of Texas executed Steven. While it didn’t stop the executioners, it did register resistance. In an age of indifference, Jesus makes it clear that our call is to be human amid horror.
You do not have to look too far into scripture to figure out why the death penalty is an apostasy of the highest order
If being fully human (and as such fully divine) is the measure of what it means to follow Jesus, Steven far outpaced those who wanted him dead. Matthew 25:36 makes it clear that Jesus is incarnate in our prisons far more than he is incarnate in our churches.
I don’t know that I can say it any better than I did to the Texas Observer right before Steven was executed: “The question is not about the perpetrator. It’s about us. Are we righteous enough to kill someone? Are we righteous enough to judge someone in that way? I knew that his case involved killing a pastor. And I also knew that this was going to be a circumstance where the church was going to advocate for him to be executed. And…to me, it’s like taking a big s*** on the face of Jesus to advocate for someone to be killed.”
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