Joey Huertas interviews with Reverend Walt Everett on Restorative Justice and Death Penalty.

    

Excerpt/clip from filmmaker Joey Huertas who interviews Walt Everett, Restorative Justice advocate. Walt is an ardent advocate of the anti-death penalty movement and is active in numerous abolition and restorative justice organizations. His story has been told in numerous publications including an extensive profile in Rolling Stone. In 1987 Walt Everett’s son, Scott, was shot and killed at the age of 24. For almost a year afterwards, Walt’s emotional state moved from rage to depression. He found it difficult to even go through the motions of his work as pastor of a United Methodist Church. It was only at the sentencing when he heard Mike Carlucci express remorse for killing Scott that Walt felt God nudging him towards forgiveness. Walt describes this journey as the most difficult thing he has ever had to do. He wrote to Mike on the first anniversary of Scott’s death. Thus began a correspondence, which led to visits and finally to Walt’s testifying on Mike’s behalf at a parole hearing. Based on this testimony, Mike obtained an early release and went to work for a trucking firm where his boss described him as “the best supervisor I ever had.” Walt and Mike often speak together at universities, churches and community groups about the healing power of forgiveness, healing for both the forgiven and forgiver. Walt is a pastor of United Methodist Church of Hartford, Connecticut. He met his wife at a bereavement group and between them they have six children, four of whom are still living, and eight grandchildren. Walt is an ardent advocate of the anti-death penalty movement and is active in numerous abolition and restorative justice organizations. His story has been told in numerous publications including an extensive profile in Rolling Stone. He believes MVFHR (Murder Victims Families For Human Rights) is “vital to the cause of abolition. MVFHR is an international, non-governmental organization of family members of murder victims and family members of the executed, all of whom oppose the death penalty in all cases. We view the death penalty as a profound violation of human rights. For too long we have allowed nations, including the United States of America, to go it alone when it comes to human rights issues. The intentional taking of a human life is a violation of the growing standards of morality of the worldwide community, and violates, as well, our understanding of who we are in God’s world.”