Let us choose life! From the Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation Committee
Recently, many Catholic advocates urged President Biden to commute the death sentences of the 40 people who were on federal death row. Thanks in large part to these efforts, before Christmas, President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of 37 individuals on federal death row. Their sentences were reclassified from execution to life without the possibility of parole. Three men remain in federal death row.
On New Year’s Eve, Governor Roy Cooper of North Carolina commuted the death sentences of 15 men who had been sentenced to execution, with 121 men remaining on death row. This is another partial victory in our efforts to end the death penalty.
As Catholics, we believe deeply in the sacredness of all life. We have promoted life from conception to natural death. In the past, the Cincinnati Province and the Kansas City Province both had taken corporate stances against the death penalty. We believe that part of our mission is to educate, advocate, and organize to end a barbaric practice that is favored by dictators in China, North Korea, and Iran, among others. More than 70% of countries and every major Western democracy, except the United States, have abolished the death penalty entirely or in practice.
Evidence clearly shows the death penalty does not deter crime — in the U.S., death penalty states have greater rates of homicide than non-death-penalty states. Moreover, the risk of executing innocent people is high: for every eight persons executed in the U.S. in the modern era, one person on death row has been exonerated. The death penalty is proven to be arbitrary, unfair, racist, and very expensive. It does not reflect our Gospel values.
We continue to work in eliminating the use of the death penalty. Before the World Day of Peace on Jan. 1, Pope Francis stated, “… I would like once more to propose a concrete gesture that can help foster the future of life, namely the elimination of the death penalty in all nations. This penalty not only compromises the inviolability of life but eliminates every human hope of forgiveness and rehabilitation.”
Gabino Zavala, JPIC Director