Pacifist children prepare to protest death penalty

FARMINGTON, Pa. - Vernita Arnold, 11, shows off a stack ofcolorful drawings from her best pen pal, Danny Gwynn.

Most of Gwynn's drawings are of flowers and birds, but onestands out with images of bricks and flames. The artist, a formercrack addict, is on Pennsylvania's Death Row for setting an apartmentbuilding fire that killed a woman.

Vernita, a member of the pacifist Christian Bruderhof community,has never asked him about his crime and knows only that he is sorry.Like their spiritual relatives the Amish, the Bruderhofcommunities don't allow television and shelter their children fromviolence.However, they are politically active, and Vernita and fellowsixth-grader Sandra Scott were so impressed by Gwynn and other DeathRow inmates that they organized a 30-mile, three-day march againstcapital punishment.They expect at least 500 people to join them today in theirChildren's Crusade to Death Row, heading to the Greene State Prison.The girls received letters of support from Michael Dukakis, aformer presidential candidate, and Sister Helen Prejean, author ofDead Man Walking.The children's zeal and naivete about their pen pals haveprovoked rage from victims' relatives.The Bruderhof children stress sympathy for crime victims'families, but hold fast to meticulously outlined arguments againstcapital punishment.