3) OTHER STATE NEWS
ALASKA: In January, Republican House Speaker Mike Chenault introduced legislation that would allow the attorney general to seek capital punishment in certain cases. But Chenault, who filed a similar bill last year, told the media he doubts there are enough votes to pass the bill.
The death penalty was banned by the territorial legislature in 1957, two years before Alaska became a state. Since then, whenever reinstatement has been considered by lawmakers, it has been opposed by the state’s Catholic bishops.
CALIFORNIA: The organization California People of Faith Working Against the Death Penalty has added a new chapter in Fresno to cover the Central Valley area. It is chaired by Fr. James Rude, S.J.
“The chapter meets monthly at the offices of the Diocese of Fresno, and we welcome new members” says CACP member Maria Telesco. “We are hard at work meeting with clergy of all faiths to bring our message to their congregations.”
For more information, contact Fr. Rude at the Diocese of Fresno (1550 N. Fresno St., Fresno CA 93703; jimrude@ hotmail.com), or maria.telesco@sbcglobal.net.
CACP member Paul W. Comiskey, a retired defense attorney and former Jesuit priest, is the author of a 64-page booklet, A Taxpayer’s Guide to the California Death Penalty.
It aims, in Comiskey’s words, to show how “we can take the resources we put into the death penalty and turn them into help for crime victims and for utilizing the powerful tool we have in DNA forensics to deter and stop violent crime.”
In the book, Comiskey points out that California has the largest death row in the world (almost 700 inmates). Since the current death penalty law was passed in 1978, he notes, there have been 13 executions, 44 prisoners have died from natural causes, 17 have committed suicide, and 5 have died from drug overdoses and violence. “Money is spent trying to kill aging convicts whose death verdicts are likely to be reversed or who may die naturally before their appeal is completed,” he writes. “The reversal rate for death verdicts is between 70%-80%. The length of time for appeal completion is approaching 30 years. The system bleeds money, and basically functions as a lottery.”
For information on obtaining copies, contact Comiskey at 3370 Rattlesnake Rd., Newcastle CA 95658 (916-663-4039; paulcomiskey@earthlink.net).
FLORIDA: Despite a campaign spearheaded by Jewish religious groups that resulted in more than 50,000 clemency requests to Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, inmate Martin Grossman was executed February 16 for a murder committed 25 years ago, when he was 19.
Among the clemency petitions was a letter written by Archbishop Fernando Filoni, Substitute for General Affairs in the Roman Curia, on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI. “The prisoner has repented,” Filoni wrote, “and is now a changed person, having become a man of faith.” He asked Crist for “whatever steps may be possible to save the life of Mr. Grossman.”
Filoni’s letter was reportedly written following a personal request to the pope by Shear-Yashuv Cohen, Chief Rabbi of Haifa, Israel.
Attorneys for Grossman argued that the crime was not premeditated, and that he acted while under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
“I would like to extend my heartfelt remorse to the victim’s family,” Grossman said in his last statement. “I fully regret everything that occurred that night. Everything that was done, whether I remember everything or not. I accept responsibility.” He then recited the Shema, a traditional prayer, adapted from Deuteronomy 6:4, that Jews aspire to say at the time of their death.
On March 4, the Florida Supreme Court stayed the execution of David Johnston so that a hearing can be held to determine the validity of a new IQ test which, Johnston’s attorneys say, shows he is mentally retarded and therefore not subject to execution.
Earlier, Florida’s Catholic bishops had written to Gov. Crist urging him to commute Johnston’s sentence to life without parole. “In pursuing justice for victims of violent crimes,” they wrote, “the state must not be blinded by politics or the desire for revenge that would violate human dignity and the sacredness of all life.”
KENTUCKY: Among the bills backed by the Catholic Conference of Kentucky in the recent legislative session was a measure (HB 16) designed to prevent the execution of people with severe mental illness. It would have set up a mechanism for courts to determine whether a convicted killer was severely mentally ill at the time the crime took place.
Another bill, introduced by Democratic Reps. Tom Burch and Jim Wayne, both Catholic, called for repealing the state’s death penalty law.
No action was taken on either bill in the House Judiciary Committee.
MISSOURI: Among the current legislative proposals backed by the Missouri Catholic Conference are Senate Bill 930 and House Bills 1683 and 1870, all of which would create a commission to study the state’s capital punishment system, including its costs, and would impose a moratorium on executions while the study is under way.
The bills have won the support of a wide range of Catholic parishes, religious communities, and other groups (listed on the website www.moratoriumnow.org).
“We don’t even know the cost of the death penalty,” says Rita Linhardt, a lobbyist for the conference who also chairs the board of Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. “We have an idea from other states from studies they have done. But we’re the ‘show-me’ state ... and we need to have our own data.”
The MCC is also supporting SB 591, which calls for an outright repeal of the state’s death penalty.
MONTANA: State Sen. Roy Brown, a Catholic Republican, was dubbed “a rarity -- a conservative who’s against the death penalty” in a January 19 Associated Press article reprinted in dozens of local papers around the country, following his participation as a panelist at the January 14-17 annual conference of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty in Louisville, Ky.
Entitled “Anti-Death-Penalty Movement Wooing Conservatives,” the article noted that Brown -- the 2008 Republican nominee for governor, and the sponsor of a death penalty repeal bill in Montana last year -- feels that his anti-death-penalty stance “aligns perfectly with conservative ideology.” It called him “one of the more high-profile figures reaching out to other social and fiscal conservatives, hoping to create a bipartisan movement against capital punishment.” It quoted Brown as saying: “I believe that life is precious from the womb to a natural death.”
NEBRASKA: On February 15, new rules and regulations covering lethal injection as a method of execution went into effect. Republican Gov. Dave Heineman approved them four days earlier in accordance with a law enacted last year that changed the state’s execution method from electrocution to lethal injection. In 2008, the Nebraska Supreme Court struck down the use of the electric chair, calling it cruel and unusual punishment.
On March 25, a proposal (referred to in Item No. 6, below -- “The Cost of Capital Punishment”) to authorize a $50,000 study of the costs of maintaining the state’s death penalty was turned down by a tie vote (22-22) in the unicameral legislature. For the bill to advance, 25 votes were necessary. The study would have compared costs of capital cases with those of non-capital cases over the past 25 years.
NEW HAMPSHIRE: On January 6, the state’s House of Representatives voted 201-161 against a proposal to expand the death penalty law to cover murders committed during home invasions. Under the current law, the death penalty can be imposed only for killings of judges, police or officers of the court; murders-for-hire; and first-degree murders committed during drug deals or kidnappings.
Testifying against a similar bill at a February 2 Senate committee hearing was Dr. Peter Cataldo, respect life director of the Diocese of Manchester, which covers the entire state. Speaking on behalf of Manchester Bishop John B. McCormack, Cataldo said that in the present day, the death penalty is not necessary to ensure public safety, and that it has “the potential to contribute the the culture of violence” that the state seeks to control.
The committee voted to defer action on the bill until next year. A state commission is currently studying the issue of the death penalty and is scheduled to issue its report in December.
“What Catholics Should Know About the Death Penalty” is the title of a new parish educational program developed by the Manchester Diocese’s Respect Life Office and New Hampshire Catholic Charities. It includes an overview of Catholic teaching on the issue as well as information about the use and effects of capital punishment in the U.S. Information about the program is available from Dr. Peter Cataldo, c/o the diocese’s Respect Life Office, PO Box 310, Manchester NH 03105-0310 (603-663-0148; pcataldo@rcbm.org).
SOUTH DAKOTA: A bill to repeal the state’s death penalty law and to change the sentences of the two men on South Dakota’s death row to life-without-parole was rejected in a House committee on February 18 by a vote of 8-5. Chief sponsor of the measure was Rep. Gerald F. Lange (D), a Catholic lawmaker who has sponsored similar bills in the past.
The legislation was supported by the Association of Christian Churches of South Dakota, an ecumenical organization whose membership includes the Catholic Dioceses of Rapid City and Sioux Falls.
South Dakota has executed only one person in the past 50 years. There are currently two men on its death row.
VIRGINIA: In early March, lawmakers approved legislation that expands the state’s death penalty by allowing it to be imposed for murders of auxiliary police officers, auxiliary deputy sheriffs and on-duty fire marshals. The proposals were strongly opposed by the Virginia Catholic Conference. Lawmakers passed similar bills last year, but they were vetoed by then-Gov. Timothy Kaine (D). The current governor, Bob McDonnell (R) supports the death penalty. Both Kaine and McDonnell are Catholics.
On February 25, a Senate committee rejected two other bills that would have broadened the list of circumstances under which death sentences can be considered, and which were also opposed by the VCC. One would have eliminated the so-called “triggerman” rule, under which, with few exceptions, only actual perpetrators of capital murders are eligible for the death penalty. The other would have added an even wider range of occupations (such as forest wardens, arson investigators, volunteer firefighters) to the murder victim categories in which death sentences could be sought.
Also passed, by large bipartisan majorities in both houses, was legislation that gives an indigent defendant who has been charged with a capital offense the right to have experts assist in the preparation of his or her defense.
Among Catholic parishes holding March 18 vigils to protest the execution of inmate Paul Powell that day were St. Ann’s (Ashland), St. Mary of Sorrows (Fairfax), Holy Spirit (Lee County), Our Lady of Mt. Carmel (Newport News), St. Peter’s (Richmond) and St. Mary Star of the Sea (Virginia Beach). In addition, the Norfolk Catholic Worker Community held a vigil in front of the Norfolk City Jail.
Since 1976, when the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment, Virginia has executed more people (106) than any other state except Texas.
4) OVERSEAS NEWS
AUSTRALIA: On March 11, in a largely symbolic move supported on all sides of the political spectrum, the Federal Parliament passed legislation ensuring that the death penalty can never be reinstated in any Australian jurisdiction. Although no state or territory in the nation currently employs the practice, backers said the laws were needed to make certain that it could never be reintroduced.
The bill amends the Commonwealth Death Penalty Abolition Act of 1973 by extending its application to state laws.
In 2008, the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council urged Parliament to adopt a stronger and more consistent stance against capital punishment. Doing so, ACSJC chair Bishop Christopher Saunders said at the time, would give leaders of all political parties an opportunity to confirm Australia’s opposition to capital punishment and to renew efforts for its worldwide abolition.
ACSJC’s 2008 statement was issued after Indonesia’s execution, in November of that year, of three men responsible for a 2002 nightclub bombing in Bali, in which 88 Australians died. In the statement, Saunders criticized Australian government leaders for not having spoken out more strongly against the executions.
“Australia has already committed itself to international laws that prohibit capital punishment,” he said. “To incorporate these commitments into Australian law would ensure that no jurisdiction in Australia could ever reintroduce the death penalty. It would also communicate Australia’s position more clearly in our region and around the world.
“The ACSJC,” he continued, “holds that a strong, principled rejection of capital punishment anywhere in the world—regardless of who the accused is or the nature of their crime—would improve Australia’s ability to protect and represent Australian citizens who are exposed to the death penalty overseas.”
Following the March 11 vote, Liberal Sen. Gary Humphries said it was a “hallmark of a civilized society,” noting that Australia’s last execution took place in 1967.
“It is to me a matter of great satisfaction,” he added, “that today the Federal Parliament on behalf of all Australian jurisdictions is in the position to close the door finally, and I think irrevocably, on this particular, rather dreary aspect of the Australian criminal justice system.”
On April 2, Good Friday, a prayer vigil took place in Brisbane for three Australians who are on death row in Indonesia for trying to smuggle heroin from Bali to Australia and who are appealing their sentences in Indonesia’s Supreme Court. It was held at Christ the King church, the home parish of Scott Rush, one of the three inmates.
Peter Arndt of the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission said the vigil was being held to show support for the men and their families, “and also to make a public expression for abolition of the death penalty.”
Added Arndt: “We would hope that the state and federal governments continue to commit themselves to the abolition of the death penalty in Indonesia, and with our other trading partners, and do everything they can to spare the lives of Scott Rush and the other two on death row.”
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: On January 26, the country’s new constitution took effect after seven months of congressional debate. “The right to life is inviolable from conception to natural death,” Article 37 of the document says. “The death penalty shall not be established, decreed or applied in any case.”
SOUTH KOREA: On February 25, by a 5-4 vote, the nation’s Constitutional Court upheld the legality of the death penalty, dashing hopes of religious leaders for immediate repeal of the practice.
“The court’s decision is behind the times and world trends,” said John Kim Hyoung-tae, an attorney representing the Committee for the Abolition of Capital Punishment of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Korea.
“Currently, 139 countries have abolished the punishment in law or in practice, and more countries are joining,” he said. “The death penalty is the fundamental infringement of life, and I don’t understand how the justices ruled so.”
Death penalty opponents now plan to push for abolition legislation in the National Assembly.
5) BUILDING BRIDGES: A KEY COMPONENT OF ABOLITION EFFORTS, by Most Rev. Michael J. Sheehan
Following are excerpts from a February 23, 2010 address by Santa Fe (NM) Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan at Notre Dame University’s Law School in South Bend, Indiana. His remarks were made at a faculty colloquium sponsored by the school’s Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.
On March 18, 2009, Governor Bill Richardson signed the bill to repeal the death penalty for the State of New Mexico. Through our state Catholic Conference, the three bishops of New Mexico had urged the state legislature to do away with capital punishment. Finally, after years of effort we were able to work with other groups and with legislators to encourage that a law be passed repealing the death penalty. Governor Richardson, in the past, had been supportive of capital punishment, but finally was able to change his position to sign the repeal. He and I spoke a number of times in private about this change in his approach to the matter.
Our hearts go out to the victims of crime and their loved ones, and we offer our heartfelt sympathy. We pray for God’s healing hand to come upon them. But the execution of a dangerous criminal will not bring back a loved one who was killed. Why not mandate a lifetime of imprisonment without parole so that the criminal can contemplate the horrendous evil that has been done so as to generate true repentance and a desire for forgiveness?
There are many reasons why the death penalty should be repealed. First, it is cruel and unnecessary. We can protect society without executing a human being. Life imprisonment without parole protects innocent citizens without having to resort to execution. Our modern prison system is most capable of effectively keeping those convicted incarcerated.
Most civilized nations have given up capital punishment years ago. Most countries in Europe haven’t had the death penalty since the Second World War. By allowing the death penalty in the United States we are in the company of countries as China, North Korea, and Iran. The United States has the fifth largest number of executions in the world. But as more nations see the death penalty as cruel and unnecessary, the use of it is certainly decreasing.
Secondly, criminology experts tell us that the death penalty does not deter people from committing murder. Sixty-eight percent of these experts state that it is totally inaccurate or largely inaccurate to hold that the death penalty significantly reduces the number of homicides. (Source: Northwestern University School of Law Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 2009.)
Thirdly, there is the innocence issue. DNA evidence has proven that some of those condemned to death were innocent of the crime they were accused of. Since 1973, when executions became legal again, after a seven year moratorium, the number of exonerations has risen to 138 -- eight of them in 2009 alone.
Most of those exonerated were members of racial minorities; 42% of those on death rows around the country are African American. Race is indeed a factor in the imposition of the death penalty. The death penalty has been discriminatory against the poor, the indigent and racial minorities.
Fourth, capital punishment has been shown to actually cost more than life imprisonment. This is because of the legal appeals and the need for attorneys to represent the convict. Death row inmates wait four years on average before being assigned an attorney for the first appeal.
Fifth, Church teaching opposes capital punishment. The bishops of the United States have for many years spoken out against capital punishment. In his 1995 encyclical, Evangelium Vitae, Pope John Paul II emphasized the Church’s teaching.
Capital punishment is indeed a pro-life issue. We have a strong respect for the dignity of human life from conception to natural death. When life is disrespected any place along the spectrum then all human life is disrespected. Since we believe in the consistent ethic of life, we should include capital punishment as well as the other issues. We are made in the image and likeness of God and each human life counts.
The number of executions has dropped in the United States. Although a Gallup Poll last year found that a majority still support capital punishment, support declined from 80% in 1994 to 64% in 2008. Support drops whenever the alternative is proposed of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
For these reasons and others, the New Mexico State Legislature, last year, voted to repeal the death penalty.
We were able to win not only the repeal of the death penalty. We also defeated funding of embryonic stem cell research at the University of New Mexico, a local version of FOCA, and assisted suicide. We defended the innocent life of the human embryo and the less than innocent life of the criminal. All on the basis of the consistent ethic of life that defends life from conception to natural death. The New Mexico Legislature heard our message.
I believe in building bridges. We have other churches and groups that agree with us that capital punishment is wrong. The New Mexico Conference of Churches, mostly mainline churches, stood with us at the legislature and in letters to the editors of local papers in favor of the repeal.
On the other pro-life issues and on traditional marriage and family life, we got the Evangelicals and Baptists to work with us to defeat same sex unions and embryonic stem cell research. Bridge building enabled us to succeed in these areas. It is important to use op-ed pieces in the diocesan and secular papers and to use the internet to build support too.
My hope is that there will be continued success in our country as more states abolish the death penalty. I encourage you, law students here at the University of Notre Dame, to work with your friends and fellow citizens to build a climate of respect for life that includes opposition to capital punishment.
I believe that the case against the death penalty will continue to grow stronger in the days to come. I look forward to that time when it is not allowed in the United States. The dignity of human life at all levels calls for a more humane way of life. Let us all work together for this goal.
6) THE COST OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, by James R. Cunningham
Following are excerpts from the January 29, 2010, “Capitol Comments” column that appears regularly in the newspapers of Nebraska’s Catholic dioceses. The author is executive director of the Nebraska Catholic Conference.
When does the economic cost that government incurs in seeking to dispense the ultimate retribution to those convicted of heinous murders become too high to justify? How much is endmost revenge worth in spending taxpayer funds? Can capital punishment be too expensive and irresponsibly wasteful when other crime-fighting and crime-solving needs are underfunded?
Nebraska appears to be in a phase of its death penalty history that has some lawmakers and others asking serious and legitimate questions about the economic drain -- especially during economic angst and instability -- and cost-effectiveness of continuing to hang onto the death penalty as the maximum sentence for aggravated first-degree murder.
The obvious alternative would be maximum-security imprisonment for life with the only possibility of ever being paroled resting in the hands of three officials elected statewide -- the Governor, Attorney General and Secretary of State -- and their rarely used constitutional authority to commute sentences to terms of years.
Last year, rooted on by lobbyists for the Governor and the Attorney General, a clear-cut majority of the Nebraska legislators breathed new life into the death penalty. They did so by amending state law to establish lethal injection as the method of execution. This was in response to Nebraska Supreme Court rendering the death penalty lifeless by ruling that the longstanding, sole method, death by electrocution, was unconstitutional as cruel and unusual punishment.
During intense debate on this difficult and emotionally draining issue, several lawmakers, who saw the policy circumstances as they truly were, an opportunity to move past the social and economic burdens of the death penalty and forward toward more cost-efficient and effective responses to crime and violence, brought attention to the general issue of cost effectiveness. The attention didn’t make a difference in the policy outcome, but it raised new, legitimate issues that won’t soon go away.
Now, this year, in a new session of the Legislature, the questions have re-surfaced on the floor. It happened when LB 306 was called for General File (first round) debate. The bill, chiefly sponsored by Senator Brenda Council of Omaha, proposes to replace the death penalty with a maximum sentence of life without parole (subject to the single exception) and with an order of restitution.
LB 306 didn’t have a chance of advancing, but it created another opportunity for Senator Council and Senator Danielle Conrad in particular, to focus attention on the issues of cost and cost effectiveness.
At one point, Senator Council offered an amendment that called for an official state audit of the costs of the death penalty and the comparative costs of incarceration for life for the 11 convicted murderers now on death row. Senator Conrad, a member of the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee, made an especially compelling point when she alluded to the fact that due almost entirely to budget constraints—lack of funds to spend—the manpower of the Nebraska State Patrol is now at its lowest level since fiscal year 1985-86. And, the state crime lab is underfunded as well. Safety takes a hit, while the death penalty racks up costs.
While Senator Council’s amendment to study costs was decisively rejected, it did lead to the introduction of a bill proposing to authorize and urge the State Auditor to do an audit, taking into account all relevant fiscal factors.
Numerous studies involving other states have concluded that the death penalty is incredibly expensive, an exorbitant drain on already hard-hit state budgets and a highly inefficient use of taxpayer dollars.
Last October, a report by the Death Penalty Information Center, citing figures compiled from several states, including Florida, New Jersey, Maryland, Kansas and California, found that death-penalty costs can average $10 million more per year per state than life sentences. The organization’s executive director said, “With many states spending millions to retain the death penalty, while seldom or never carrying out an execution, the death penalty is turning into a very expensive form of life without parole. At a time of budget shortfalls, the death penalty cannot be exempt from reevaluation alongside other wasteful government programs that no longer make sense.”
Then, in December, an economist at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy published a study that found the state of North Carolina would have a net savings of $11 million per year if it replaced its death penalty with imprisonment for life without parole. Part of the expense differential, of course, is tied to protections that state and federal laws require for those facing execution, to prevent putting innocent people to death.
Nebraska doesn’t know its death penalty costs, because there hasn’t been a serious effort to find out. There’s no better time to do it than now. Nebraskans ought to know.
Some lawmakers say that deterrence is worth whatever it costs. But deterrence as a justification for the death penalty has been dismantled by facts and argument, to the point it’s unreliable, if not totally irrelevant. Others might say the cost of studying the cost of the death penalty will be too high, but that’s nonsense.
Some lawmakers, perhaps even a majority, sad to say, hold a view that they don’t need to know or want to know, because the cost differential won’t make a bit of difference. In cases that become capital cases, the cost of revenge and retribution is worth it. Sky’s the limit.
You might have to wait a long time to hear any of them say that same thing about spending for more effective law enforcement, or for the correctional system, or for solving cold cases, or for compensating victims of crime and violence, or for any number of human service programs.
7) STUDY EXAMINES DEATH PENALTY ATTITUDES OF CATHOLICS AT CATHOLIC COLLEGES
A new study indicates that if and when Catholic students attending Catholic colleges change their views on the issue of the death penalty, they are more likely to become against capital punishment than for it.
The project, carried out by the Georgetown-University-based Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), generally found that Catholic students at Catholic colleges are less likely than Catholic students in public colleges to move away from the church’s teachings on various social and political issues.
The study was discussed at the January 31 annual meeting of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities. It was based on nationwide surveys of 14,527 students conducted in late 2004, when they were freshmen, and in early 2007, when they were juniors.
By the time they reached their junior year, just under half (49%) of Catholic students attending Catholic colleges said they agreed “strongly” or “somewhat” that the death penalty should be abolished, according to the study.
Some 31% of the students reported they had switched their position from pro-death-penalty to anti-death-penalty by the time they reached their junior year. Only 21% said they had changed from anti- to pro-death-penalty during the same period. The remaining 48% said their position on the issue did not change.
On pro-life issues in general, the results showed a “mixed pattern,” CARA said. When asked about abortion, a majority (56%) surveyed in their junior year disagreed “strongly” or “somewhat” that “abortion should be legal.” But more of them had opposed abortion when they were freshmen. Only 16% of the students said they had moved from being pro-choice to anti-abortion in their first three years in college, but 31% said they moved away from the church’s position on the issue during the same period.
The study can be accessed at http://cara.georgetown.edu.
8) CD RESOURCE FOR FAITH COMMUNITIES IS UPDATED BY DPIC
The Death Penalty Information Center recently updated its information packet titled Death Penalty Resources for Communities of Faith.
The resource was initially developed two years ago (see CACP News Notes, August 1, 2008, p.6) to help religious groups address the death penalty by providing information, discussion questions, and multi-media resources.
According to DPIC, the materials offer a framework useful for any discussion of capital punishment and do not directly involve religious or moral instructions. They are presented in a way that is adaptable to many different faith communities.
Each packet contains a CD with statements on the issue from various religious denominations, death penalty fact sheets in English and Spanish, and answers to questions about the death penalty. Users are welcome to photocopy the resources and share them with members of their groups.
Also included on the CD are video clips, bulletin inserts, and discussion guides on four key death penalty issues:
- Costs: provides information showing that the death penalty is more expensive than imprisoning a person for life (can be used as the basis for a sermon about fiscal or civic responsibility).
- Innocence: focuses on the risk of executing an innocent person (can be adapted to related topics; e.g., the meaning of justice).
- Race: how the race of the defendant, the victim, and members of the jury can play a role in the outcome of a capital case (can be developed into a broader discussion of race in general).
- Victims: presents statements from murder victims’ family members, as well as true stories of healing and mercy (can open up discussions of topics such as forgiveness and revenge).
Copies are free to parishes and other groups (with a nominal donation requested to cover mailing costs) from DPIC. For information, contact Elaine de Leon, Information and Research Specialist, c/o DPIC, 1015 18th St. NW (#704), Washington DC 20036 (202-289-2275; religious@deathpenaltyinfo.org).
The DPIC’s website contains a section that focuses on the approaches of various faiths to the issue of the death penalty. Included is a broad spectrum of articles, opinions and polling information addressing the subject from a religious point of view. It can be accessed at www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/Religion.
9) BOOK NOTES: THE TRAL OF JESUS AND AMERICAN CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
Jesus on Death Row: The Trial of Jesus and American Capital Punishment, by Mark Osler. Nashville, Tenn.: Abington Press, 2009. 157 pp. ISBN-13: 9780687647569.
In chapter one, the author says that in explaining the similarities between the criminal conviction procedure that Christ faced and such procedures today, he was not trying to compare Christ with today’s murderers, but rather, in his words, “to compare the society that executed him with our own.”
Osler, a professor of law at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, is a former federal prosecutor and an expert on federal sentencing guidelines who weaves his experience and knowledge of criminal prosecution into an account of what Jesus faced in his trial.
In a review of the book in the newsletter of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Vicki McCuistion writes: “This book will not only give you a better understanding of the trial that led to Jesus’ crucifixion, but will also provide insight into what current capital defendants face in the American capital punishment system.... One has to wonder if Jesus came again today and ended up being prosecuted in a Texas court, would he not again be faced with a trial that included entrapment, a paid witness, and denial of clemency.”
10) QUOTES
“There is no question in my mind at all that the death penalty has no place in a civilized society. We cannot, as human beings who are imperfect, and in a system that is imperfect, try to come out with a perfect solution.”
- Former Florida Supreme Court Justice Gerald Kogan, quoted in the Florida Catholic newspaper, June 17, 2009
“Conservatives have every reason to believe the death penalty system is no different from any politicized, costly, inefficient, bureaucratic, government-run operation, which we conservatives know are rife with injustice ... support for it undermines our arguments against abortion, euthanasia, and related practices."
- Catholic conservative Richard A. Viguerie, in his book, Conservatives Betrayed (Bonus Books, 2006)
11) CACP ANNUAL FINANCIAL REPORT FOR 2009
Income
Contributions $4,607.00
Expenses
Printing $2,536.50
Postage/PO Box rental 1,579.50
Bank charges 69.00
Supplies, publications 127.17
Ads/Contributions to other organizations 20.00
Website/computer/fax 422.87
Salaries 0
Travel expenses 0
Total Expenses –$4,755.04
Surplus as of 12/31/08 $23.74
Deficit as of 12/31/09 –$124.30
12) COMING EVENTS
June 28-July 2: Abolition Action Committee’s 17th Annual Fast & Vigil to Abolish the Death Penalty at the U.S. Supreme Court, Washington, D.C. Info: AAC (800-973-6548; www.abolition.org)
July 16-18: Pax Christi USA National Conference on Catholic Peacemaking, Rosemont Hotel at O’Hare, Rosemont, Ill. Info: Pax Christ USA, 532 W. 8th St., Erie PA 16502; 814-453-4955; info@paxchristiusa.org
November 16-17: People of Faith Against the Death Penalty National Conference, Emory University, Atlanta, Ga. Info: PFADP, 110 W. Main St. (Suite 2-G), Carrboro NC 27510; 919-933-7567; www.pfadp.org
January 13-16, 2011: National Coalition Against the Death Penalty Annual Conference, Renaissance Chicago Hotel, Chicago, Ill. Info: NCADP, 1705 DeSales St. NW, Washington DC 20036; 202-331-4090; info@ncadp.org
13) OBSERVATIONS: IS PERSEVERANCE THE KEY?
Trusting in the words of the Roman poet Lucretius that “the drops of rain make a hole in the stone, not by violence, but by oft falling,” we once again implore you to join us in respectfully urging the leaders of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to demonstrate their oft-declared opposition to the death penalty by placing greater emphasis on the issue as an integral component of the Catholic Church’s pro-life message.
On December 2, we wrote to the new chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Texas, asking him to do just that. We told him we were delighted that he would be chair of the group for the next three years—not only because of the many instances in which he had spoken out against capital punishment, but also because he had generally done so in a way that portrayed such opposition as part of the broad pro-life spectrum.
“We can think of no better example of this,” we wrote, “than your participation in, and comments at, the November 2008 Pilgrimage of Life procession that began at an abortion referral center in Huntsville, Texas, and ended at the prison facility there where executions are carried out.” [See December 5, 2008 CACP News Notes, p. 5.]
Our letter noted that CACP, during most of its 18 years of existence, has called for more emphasis by the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities on the issue of the death penalty.
“Our hopes were lifted in March 2005,” we said, “when the USCCB’s Department of Social Justice and World Peace (now the Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development) launched the Catholic Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty at a press conference in Washington, D.C.
“At the time,” we noted, “CACP’s newsletter cited the comments made at the event by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick (‘I think that to be really pro-life, we have to be pro-life in every instance’) and by Gail Quinn, then executive director of the USCCB’s Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities (‘We pledge to be an integral part of carrying out this campaign’). CACP described these statements as ‘music to the ears of anti-death-penalty Catholics who have long been concerned about what they perceived as a lack of emphasis on the death penalty issue on the part of the USCCB’s Pro-Life Office.’
“Our elation was short-lived, however,” we continued. “Since the launching of that ambitious program, the death penalty issue seems to have been not only downplayed, but sometimes ignored, by the Committee on Pro-Life Activities.”
In the past three years, we noted, statements and press releases issued by the Pro-Life Office, as well as the materials in its annual “Respect Life Month” program (designed to encourage parish grassroots efforts on life issues), contained information about a host of subjects -- abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, same-sex unions, in-vitro fertilization, sexually-transmitted diseases, and contraception -- but not a word concerning the death penalty.
“Such omissions, in our view,” we wrote Cardinal DiNardo, “serve to blur what should be a clear picture of our Church’s concern for human life at all stages. This, in turn, can cause confusion in the minds of Catholics, and may affect how credible the Church appears in the eyes of the general public and the media.
“We are concerned,” the letter explained, “that by disregarding the issue of the death penalty in its programs and statements, the Pro-Life Committee may be ignoring the wise counsel offered three decades ago by the U.S. bishops in their historic 1980 Statement on Capital Punishment. In it, the bishops affirmed that in voicing their opposition to the death penalty, they sought to remove ‘a certain ambiguity’ about our Church’s affirmation of the sanctity of all human life.
“Such reasoning is why CACP, in the past, has respectfully suggested that it would be appropriate for USCCB to transfer responsibility for the issue of the death penalty from the agenda of its Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development to that of its Committee on Pro-Life Activities.
“Although we have had no success in advancing the latter proposal so far,” we went on, “we hope that it may be considered at some point. But even if it is deemed not feasible now, we nevertheless trust that under your new leadership, the Pro-Life Committee will work to make the death penalty issue one of greater priority among its concerns ... and, in doing so, to underscore our Church’s call for respect for human life in all stages and in all circumstances.”
As this issue of CACP News Notes goes to press, there has been no reply to our letter, but we have not given up hope. After all, Cardinal DiNardo has been chairman of the committee for only a few months. And it’s unlikely that our request is a priority item on what must be a very crowded agenda, judging from the group’s recent involvement in federal health care reform legislation and other matters.
On the other hand, if he and the members of the committee receive letters similar to ours from other members and friends of CACP, it may encourage them to consider doing what we have asked; namely, to ensure that opposition to capital punishment is a component of the U.S. Catholic Church’s pro-life message whenever and wherever that message is preached.
Following are the names and addresses of the current members of the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities:
- His Eminence Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo, Archbishop of Galveston-Houston, P.O. Box 907, Houston TX 77001
- His Eminence Cardinal Justin Rigali, Archbishop of Philadelphia, 222 N. 17th Street, Suite 1207, Philadelphia PA 19103-1299
- Most Reverend Joseph F. Naumann, Archbishop of Kansas City, 12615 Parallel Parkway., Kansas City KS 66109
- Most Reverend Daniel E. Flores, Bishop of Brownsville, P.O. Box 2279, Brownsville TX 78520
- Most Reverend William E. Lori, Bishop of Bridgeport, 238 Jewett Ave., Bridgeport CT 06606
- Most Reverend Gregory J. Mansour, Bishop of Eparchy of Saint Maron for Maronites, 109 Remsen Street, Brooklyn NY 11201
- Most Reverend Robert J. McManus, STD, Bishop of Worcester, 49 Elm Street, Worcester MA 01609
- Most Reverend J. Terry Steib, SVD, Bishop of Memphis, P.O. Box 341669, Memphis TN 38184-1669
- Most Reverend Martin D. Holley, Auxiliary Bishop of Washington, P.O. Box 29260, Washington DC 20017
Thanks in advance for your help. (If you happen to know Cardinal DiNardo or any of the other committee members personally, that would be a big plus.) You may want to write to your local bishop even if he is not a member of the committee.
We know we’ve been beating this drum for quite a while -- ad infinitum, one might say. But, as in the case of the persistent widow in Luke 18, who drove the judge to exasperation, our request may someday be considered. Who knows?
Meanwhile, we thank you, as always, for your prayers and financial support, and for keeping us informed about Catholic-related anti-death-penalty efforts in your dioceses and parishes. We pray that 2010 will be a good year for you and your loved ones.
Ellen and Frank
