RALEIGH - About 30 death penalty opponents marched through the city Sunday, with a small number of them planning to walk all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington.

The walk was sponsored by People of Faith Against the Death Penalty, Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation and the Capital Restorative Justice Project. Marchers started the afternoon at Central Prison, then planned to walk to the Capitol and into North Raleigh before calling it a day.

Scott Bass of Raleigh said he planned to walk to Washington if he was physically able. Walkers are scheduled to make it to the U.S. Supreme Court building June 29. Bass said a couple of others in the group planned to join him on the entire journey, and more walkers will pick up the march for a day or two.

"Our hope is that this will cause forgotten people to be remembered," said Bass, with the Nazareth House of Raleigh, which provides hospitality to families visiting loved ones on death row.

The family members of death row inmates often feel invisible, he said. The marchers also wanted to show compassion for the families of murder victims.

Walkers plan to sleep on church floors and in a retreat center along the way, although they didn't have beds lined up for every night.

"We've got a couple places where we don't know yet," Bass said, laughing.

Some of this journey will be taken on faith.

John P. Comer, state coordinator for Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation, planned to walk Sunday from the prison to the Capitol. Sunday evening, walkers and supporters planned to meet for supper and prayer at Church of the Nativity on Ray Road.

Wearing a T-shirt that said, "The death penalty only makes more victims," Comer said he hopes the march will bring more attention to the fight against the death penalty.

"It's not right," he said of capital punishment. "It's not just."

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