Just five states, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Missouri and Texas, accounted for all U.S. executions in 2016.
Death Penalty
Posted inPolitics & Society, Signs Of the Times
Ballot initiatives backed by Catholic leaders lose in several states
In this year’s election, voters went against nearly all of the ballot initiatives backed by Catholic leaders and advocates, except referendums on minimum wage increases and gun control measures in four states.
Posted inCurrent Comment, Politics & Society
There are often mistakes in capital trials. But that’s not the strongest argument against the death penalty.
Slowly, the death penalty is gaining ground again.
Posted inFirst Monday, Politics & Society
These are the 5 legal theories that might finally end the death penalty
The Eighth Amendment prohibits “cruel and unusual punishment.”
Posted inCurrent Comment, Politics & Society
Three states will decide whether to continue the momentum against the death penalty
Support for the death penalty has slipped to just below 50 percent, its lowest level in 40 years.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
With abortion sidelined this election, some Catholics are turning to other life issues
Some Catholics have turned their sights to other issues—euthanasia, death penalty—that are part of the church’s pro-life agenda.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Signs Of the Times
Death Penalty on the Ropes?
“We want to let Catholics all throughout the state know that the death penalty is not necessary to protect public safety,” Tom Venzor, head of the Nebraska Catholic Conference, said at a press event on Sept. 29.
Posted inFaith, Faith and Reason
Rejecting the death penalty advances the culture of life
In 2007, Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, at the time bishop of Rapid City asked: Is the right to life conditional, or is it unconditional? Can men and women forfeit their right to life by their behavior, or is that right irrevocably given by God?
Posted inPolitics & Society
10 reasons to oppose the death penalty
Even the guilty have a right to life, but that is not the only reason to stand against capital punishment.