Bishops J. Mark Spalding of Nashville, Richard F. Stika of Knoxville and Martin D. Holley of Memphis have written to Gov. Bill Haslam urging him to "use your authority as governor to put an end to the fast-track executions planned" in the state of Tennessee in the upcoming months.

Encouraging an act of mercy and arguing it would not compromise justice, Nebraska's three Catholic bishops said July 6 they oppose the scheduled execution in August of death-row inmate Carey Dean Moore.

In California, Catholic opponents of the death penalty are trying to protect the largest population of inmates awaiting execution in the Western Hemisphere.

To suggest the use of the death penalty as a way to address the opioid epidemic ignores what we know already to be true: The death penalty is a flawed and broken tool in the practical pursuit of justice.

Discussions of capital punishment do not often address how death sentences affect the people who are left behind.