A federal judge Nov. 20 temporarily blocked the executions of four federal death-row inmates scheduled for December and January, saying the lethal injections they were to receive goes against the Federal Death Penalty Act.
Death Penalty
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Sister Helen Prejean’s life on death row
Lest the reader assume that Sister Prejean’s work against the death penalty, is the sum total of her story, she spends the final pages of her afterword calling out the places where she sees continued injustices, particularly in the treatment of women and L.G.B.T. people in the church.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Catholic leaders decry Barr’s decision to revive federal death penalty
After a nearly two-decade lapse in federal executions, the move, according to a Department of Justice statement to the press, brings “justice to victims of the most horrific crimes.”
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Court overturns conviction of death-row inmate for jury selection bias
The Supreme Court, citing racial bias in the prosecutor’s jury selection, overturned the death sentence of a Mississippi African American man who had been tried six times for a quadruple murder charge.
Posted inFaith, News
U.S. bishops may revise catechism to reflect capital punishment stance
The bishops’ proposed draft about the death penalty states that “today it is no longer just nor reasonable to apply the death penalty,” stressing that it is not needed to protect society and its application is “inequitable and flawed.”
Posted inFaith, Interviews
Meet the bishop behind the updated Catholic Catechism
Archbishop Fisichella has served as the first president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization since 2010 and president of the International Council for Catechesis since 2013.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
New Hampshire repeals death penalty as Senate overrides veto
“Today’s repeal is a major step toward building a culture that unconditionally protects the dignity of life, and is yet more evidence that the death penalty is falling out of favor with the American public,” said Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, executive director of Catholic Mobilizing Network, in a statement released to the media.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Supreme Court justices defend divergent death penalty views
Although the Supreme Court justices chose not to take up two petitions for review submitted by death-row inmates from Alabama and Tennessee May 13, they didn’t do so with a simple one-sentence rejection.
Posted inFaith, News
As execution looms, case for clemency hinges on an act of forgiveness
Don Johnson, set to be executed May 16 by the state of Tennessee for the brutal 1984 murder of his wife Connie Johnson, has several people in his corner advocating clemency for him.
Posted inEditorials, Politics & Society
The Editors: At its core, the death penalty is indefensible
The U.S. Supreme Court is bedeviled by never-ending questions about capital punishment that underscore the practice’s capriciousness and cruelty.