In the heart of the good fight, a romance blossoms

Scott Langley and Sheila Stumph were among those arrested last week outside Raleigh's Central Prison in protest over the 1,000th execution since capital punishment resumed in the United States in 1977.

But the Raleigh couple needed to get out of jail in time to greet their house guests the next day. Three parents of death row inmates would be coming for lunch and to stay overnight after visiting their sons.

Since moving to Raleigh last fall, Langley, 29, and Stumph, 28, have been offering such hospitality in their home, only half a mile from the prison. They have modeled their existence after the Catholic Worker Movement, which espouses nonviolence and hospitality for the poor. Stumph was raised Catholic. Langley didn't know any Catholics growing up in Texas. But each separately decided to live this life, and then they met each other.

Now they are an anti-death penalty husband-and-wife team. They have dedicated their lives to the cause, forgoing careers and financial security. They rely on donations and odd jobs -- dog sitting, house cleaning, working for caterers -- to pay the bills.

"This is our full-time job," Langley said. "We just have faith that donations will come when we're not working."

"It always has," Stumph added.

Langley grew up in Fort Worth. He studied sociology at Southern Methodist University, where he was forever changed by a history class taught by Rick Halperin, who is now board chairman of Amnesty International USA.

For the class, Langley scoured the newspaper every day for stories about human rights, which made him realize there was human rights work to be done. For a class project, he began taking photographs to document executions in Texas. Some of those photos have been displayed in Germany and at Harvard Divinity School.

His father, Grady Langley, recalls that after his son received his college diploma he told the crowd, "I want to change the world through photography."

After college, Langley found himself in Boston hanging out with Harvard divinity students, who took him to the Haley House, a local Catholic Worker house. "I was just so impressed by what I saw," he said. "It clicked. This is how I want to be living."

Eventually, Langley moved into the Haley House and worked in its soup kitchen for three years.

Making Grandma proud

Stumph grew up in Chatham, N.Y., a small town in the Hudson River Valley.

She came from a family committed to causes. Her grandmother was known to write letters to politicians and keep videotapes on hand to give to others. "She comes from a family of activists," said Stumph's mom, Kathy Stumph, herself a peace activist who has been arrested.

Among the family's close friends is the Rev. Roy Bourgeois, founder of the School of the Americas Watch. Bourgeois' group protests the federally funded School of the Americas, which is at Fort Benning in Georgia but has since been renamed. Those opposed to the school say it trains Latin American soldiers responsible for human rights abuses.

Stumph's first arrest, in 1997, was at a protest at the School of the Americas.

Her mother remembers her reaction to that first phone call from her daughter in jail. "Your grandmother is going to be so proud of you," Kathy Stumph recalls telling her then 20-year-old daughter.

Jailhouse proposal

Langley and Stumph met one weekend in April 2002 in Washington. They both planned to participate in a protest of the School of the Americas. Both were arrested for blocking an entrance to the U.S. Capitol.

Their court date was set for October, and Stumph took a week off work in anticipation of a trial. She and Langley agreed to carpool. They got to know each other during that eight-hour car ride. After their charges were dismissed, Stumph spent the rest of her week off with Langley in Boston. And so began their romance.