While standing outside the prison that housed Virginia’s execution chamber, Gov. Ralph Northam signed legislation abolishing the death penalty in the state March 24.
Death Penalty
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Virginia’s lawmakers vote to abolish the death penalty. Catholic activists helped make it happen.
Virginia is on its way to becoming the 23rd state to abolish the death penalty and, significantly, the first formerly Confederate state to achieve abolition.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Sotomayor: 13 executed under Trump administration ‘deserved more’ from Supreme Court
“There can be no justice on the fly in matters of life and death.”
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
My friend on death row drew me the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It inspires me to be a better Jesuit every day.
A picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus hangs above my bed and is one of my most precious possessions. Its artist, like Jesus, has been condemned to die for his crimes.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
What will it take to end the death penalty? Catholic activists say a more visceral approach is needed.
The rush of federal executions was an “aberration” that does not reflect the great successes of the death penalty abolition movement in recent years.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Sister Helen Prejean on Trump and Barr’s cruel spree of executions
For 17 years the attorneys general of the United States did not pursue death even though that power was in their hands, then you hit somebody like Trump.’
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
William Barr, a Catholic, went out of his way to use the death penalty (and defy church teaching)
It’s hard to see Attorney General William Barr as doing anything but consciously, defiantly thumbing his nose at Catholic teaching.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
In 2020, the Trump administration executed more prisoners than all states combined
The Trump administration’s execution spree in the second half of the year was without precedent and widely condemned.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
Bishop Flores on King Herod and America’s sinful acceptance of the death penalty
We as a country cannot simply say, “the government made the decision,” so it must be just. King Herod made a decision, too.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Bishops call on Trump and Barr—again—to stop executing people and remember mercy during Advent
“This Advent, the Lord comes to love us even though we don’t deserve it. Let us repent and embrace his gift,” the committee chairmen said in a Dec. 7 statement.