TCADP

Steve Bishop was a typical high school senior, living in Hearne, Texas, when a man wielding a firearm murdered his father.
His father, Roy Lee Bishop, was running a 24-hour café when the incident occurred. A man showed up at the café drunk and was asked not to return. A few weeks later the man returned and was refused service. After threatening a waitress, she called Roy to sort out the problem. Roy went to the café to talk to the man, and the two men stepped outside to talk.

Steve said his father didn’t know that man had a gun. After the man pulled the gun on Roy someone ran inside the café to call the sheriff. “He was shot in the heart,” Steve said. Roy, 47, was taken to the emergency room. He was shot at about 11 p.m. and died at 4 a.m. that next morning.

The murder case ended in a mistrial. In the second trial, the gunman was charged with voluntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison and served three years.

“After it happened I was so angry and hurt. I hated the person who did it. That kind of hate that some people end up clinging on to is destructive,” Steve said. He figured out that the best thing he could do was live a good life and honor the memory of his father. He decided he couldn’t live with the hate, so he had to move forward.

Steve said his high school friends helped him move forward in the days after his father’s murder. “I had great high school buddies that spent the entire day with me. There was always somebody coming by. That really helped me the most.” The first three or four days after his father’s death were horrible. “I spent most of the time crying,” Steve said. His friends didn’t try to say the right thing; they were just there to comfort him. That helped him the most.

Years later, July 5, 1995, his brother, Mark David Bishop, was killed while driving his motorcycle at night. An 18-year-old kid was driving a car with the headlight off and struck his brother, who died instantly. The driver was charged with criminal negligent homicide and placed on probation.

Although he views his brother’s death as an accident, Steve was very angry with the driver because he didn’t have a license, wasn’t insured and was driving with the headlights off. “The kid just borrowed the car to take some girls on a joyride,” Steve said.

Steve says he is against the death penalty because it doesn’t do society any good. He also feels nobody has the right to take a person’s life.

“People who haven’t gone through this experience are in favor of the death penalty. Often those people won’t listen to people who have been through my experience. Some people have so much passion around it when it really hasn’t touched their life,” Steve said. Many people view it as a moral or political issue, he said.

The most difficult thing about the loss of his father and brother is that he can’t share his life experiences with them. “The biggest impact in not having them around when you have a major life experience like the birth of his children and his grandchildren,” he said. Holidays like Father’s Day are also difficult.

Soon after his father’s death, Steve said, he believed that the gunman should die. But he really hadn’t thought much about the death penalty prior to his father’s death. “My views have really developed over time.”

Now, 52, Steve said had survivor’s guilt at age 50. “I am seeing life that my father hadn’t seen, and my brother died so young. It makes me melancholy.”

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Steve Bishop teaches at the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin. He has a B.S. in Ministry and Evangelism from Abilene Christian University and a M.S. in Counseling and Psychology from Texas A&M University. He earned a Master’s in Theological Studies from Boston University School of Theology, then obtained an M.A. in Comparative Literary Studies and a Ph.D. in Biblical and Literary Studies at Boston University.

Formerly an ordained minister of the Church of Christ, he served churches in Texas and Massachusetts before beginning graduate studies in the early 1990s. Steve’s academic interests include the poetry of the Hebrew Bible and literary translations of it into English and the influence of Hellenistic thought on Hebrew wisdom literature.

Chris Castillo serves as the Texas/National Organizer with Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation. He is based in Beaumont, Texas and will be reaching out to family members throughout the state.

Message from Chris Castillo:

I started my career as a reporter for a daily newspaper in Port Arthur, Texas. I was covering the court beat when I got the news that my mother, Pilar Castillo, had been murdered in her Houston home during a robbery. After a few years, I left the newspaper business and sought a career in public relations and marketing.

Soon after my mother’s death I began working with crime victims in Jefferson County and attending their annual Candlelight Vigil. About 10 years ago I was asked to join a faith-based ministry called Bridges to Life, which takes crime victims into prison to help inmates see the impact of crime on the individual. It was through Bridges to Life that I found forgiveness. After working with the program I learned to forgive the perpetrators of my mother’s unsolved murder.

My involvement with prison ministry has continued. I volunteer with a Bible study group at the U.S. Federal Prison Camp in Beaumont, and I have worked with Kairos and Epiphany, both programs aimed at bringing faith into the prison and changing the hearts of inmates.
 
When I was a reporter I remember the words of a crime victim whose mother was murdered. The killer was given life in prison instead of the death penalty. The crime victim’s logic was that killing another person would not bring his mother back. Deep in my heart, I knew he was right.

I don’t believe in the death penalty because I don’t think anyone has the right to take a life. I believe that a higher power will take care of any wrong doings committed on earth and, at that point, justice will be served. Plus, I know that the judicial process has many flaws. Currently, individuals who are facing murder charges who are not wealthy often do not get equal representation in the courtroom. Therefore, poorer murder suspects typically end up on death row.

It is my goal to make a difference within my world. I am honored to work with abolishing the death penalty in Texas and various other states. For me, this is more than a job. It is a calling.

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You can reach Chris at ccastillo@mvfr.org.

The Human Rights Show: KPFT FM
http://archive.kpft.org/mp3/100625_190001hr.MP3
Execution Watch: interview begins at 35:25
http://www.executionwatch.org/audio/ew_100519_180000.mp3

Dallas Morning News Blog: http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/05/east-texan-hono.html

United Methodist Church-The Woodlands May 30 to June 2, 2010

LULAC in Austin, June 2 – 6, 2010

Dallas, Cathedral of Hope, June 24, 2010

State NAACP Convention, Austin, October 12-14

SoL Center University Presbyterian Church, October 17, 2010 (with Linda White)

Catholic Formation and Leadership Conference, San Antonio, October 22-23, 2010

Southern Baptist of Texas, Corpus Christi, November 14-16, 2010

New DPIC Podcast Explores Victims’ Families and the Death Penalty

The latest edition of the Death Penalty Information Center’s series of podcasts, DPIC on the Issues, is now available for download. This podcast, Victims and the Death Penalty, explores the issues faced by murder victims’ families when capital punishment is being considered. Generally, this series of podcasts offers brief, informative discussions of key death penalty issues.  Other recent episodes include discussions on Representation and Race. Click here to download the latest episode of the podcast on Victims. You can also subscribe through iTunes to receive automatic updates when new episodes are posted and receive access to all eight episodes. Other audio and video resources can be found on our Multimedia page.(DPIC, Aug. 20, 2010).  See also Victims.