Death Penalty

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.

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.”

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.

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."

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.

“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