Death penalty Archives

Maverick image aside, sometimes Pope’s more evolution than revolution
- News Analysis
- October 17, 2017
Two stories about Pope Francis in the last few days have confirmed impressions of him as a maverick, break-the-mold kind of pope, one on the death penalty and the other on the Amazon. In both cases, however, there’s a good argument to be made that what the pope is up to represents not a revolution, but a natural evolution of where the Church was already moving.
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Pope Francis: Death penalty is contrary to the Gospel
- Catholic News Agency, Vatican
- October 11, 2017
Pope Francis on Wednesday said the death penalty “is in itself contrary to the Gospel because it is voluntarily decided to suppress a human life, which is always sacred in the eyes of the Creator and of which God only in the final analysis is the true judge and guarantor.” The pontiff said capital punishment “is an inhumane measure that humiliates, in any way it is pursued, human dignity.”
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Missouri governor right to halt execution, Catholic conference says
- Catholic News Agency, Church in the US
- August 24, 2017
Marcellus Williams, 48, was scheduled to be executed August 22. His attorneys said the DNA evidence, unavailable during his 2001 trial, proved his innocence. His DNA was not found on the murder weapon, but another man’s was. Williams says he was innocent and convicted on the testimony of individuals who were convicted felons.
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Virginia carries out execution despite pleas inmate was mentally ill

“We pray for a change of heart and a spirit of remorse and conversion on the part of the perpetrators of this violence and ask God to give all of us the grace to work for peace and respect for all life in our communities and our commonwealth,” a statement from the Virginia Catholic Conference read ahead of the state’s second execution of the year.

Catholic leaders criticize Indonesia’s continued use of death penalty

The Philippines isn’t the only Asian country struggling with a revitalizing of the death penalty. Indonesia has rejected calls from the United Nations to end its use of the punishment, but the Catholic Church in the country challenges the government’s arguments for keeping it.

Anti-death penalty activist says she wrestled with issue and ‘God won’

The death penalty appeals to many people on a gut level. After someone has heard about a very violent crime, often the person feels that the death penalty is a just response. Marietta Jaeger-Lane, whose 7 year old daughter was murdered, felt that at first too. She explains how she came to change her mind on the issue and now even works to end the death penalty.