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.”
Death Penalty
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.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Texas bans clergy from executions after Supreme Court ruling
Texas previously allowed state-employed clergy to accompany inmates into the room where they’d be executed, but its prison staff included only Christian and Muslim clerics.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Supreme Court’s recent actions reveal its death penalty divide
In two recent actions, the U.S. Supreme Court revealed its death penalty decisions are hardly cut and dried.
Posted inFaith, News Analysis
San Quentin’s chaplain: California’s death penalty moratorium has given us hope
Everything about the death penalty system seemed to be designed to deny hope.
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
After California, the real reason we should end the death penalty—for good.
The most compelling reason not to execute the convicted is an existential one: We humans are not God.