SEVERSON: This is part of a two-year-old program coordinated by the Justice Department, called Fugitive Safe Surrender. It’s the brainchild of Pete Elliott, a member of the U.S. Marshals Service.
PETE ELLIOTT PETE ELLIOTT (U.S. Marshals Service): People have asked me why a church, and it’s simple. Churches give hope.
SEVERSON: A week earlier, Memphis religious leaders and law enforcement had announced at a well-publicized news conference that for four days fugitives, people wanted by the law for whatever reason, would be allowed to turn themselves in at a well-known church””this one in the African-American community. The church would be staffed with prosecutors, judges, and court personnel.
DAVID KUSTOFF (U.S. Attorney, speaking at news conference): And most importantly volunteers from New Salem Missionary Baptist Church to greet people and to welcome them as they come in, so that they can come in to an environment that is non-hostile.
What a great idea. Living in Ohio, I have seen it in action, seen it work. Its the opposite of the heavy hand so often seen in our world today.
The last sentence says that a similar plan in New Jersey was rejected because of “church and state.” Surely there is a legitimate secular purpose in getting these warrants resolved.