USA | Notre Dame President Father John Jenkins calls on President Trump to commute upcoming executions

Citing the teachings of the Catholic Church, University of Notre Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., called today on President Donald J. Trump to commute the scheduled executions of death row inmates next week, including a woman on Tuesday, at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. (Full statement is here.)

Lisa Montgomery is scheduled to die by lethal injection for the December 2004 murder of a pregnant Missouri woman. According to experts and her attorneys, Montgomery had a long history of being abused and of subsequent mental illness. Advocates for her also cite questions about the quality of the legal counsel she received. If the execution takes place, Montgomery would be the first woman to be executed in the United States since 1953 and only the third since 1900. Father Jenkins said that Montgomery’s death would not end the suffering of the family and friends of Bobbie Jo Stinnett, her victim, or of the other victims of prisoners currently on death row.

“Her execution is one of three in my home state of Indiana in the coming week, which will bring to 13 the number of individuals executed by the federal government in the last six months,” Father Jenkins said in his statement. “President Trump, whose administration has expressed a commitment to defend the sanctity of human life, has the power to stop this inhumane, unprecedented and unnecessary spree of executions pursued by his Justice Department in the waning days of his administration. I urge him to do so.”

After many years of consideration, the Catholic Church has deemed capital punishment inadmissible under any circumstances and called upon “Catholics and all people of goodwill to work for its abolition everywhere in the world,” Father Jenkins said.

The Montgomery case “illustrates some of the many systemic failures in our system of capital punishment,” Father Jenkins said. In addition to the abuse she suffered as a child and the questions concerning the quality of counsel she received from public defense attorneys, Father Jenkins pointed to data showing that “defendants charged with killing a white victim are far more likely to be executed than when the victim is Black. He added that “no compelling evidence exists that the threat of the death penalty is an effective deterrent against future crimes.”

But, he said the most fundamental objection to the death penalty is that it “undermines our commitment to the sanctity of all human life — healthy or infirm, talented or ordinary, good or bad. Death row inmates have been convicted of some of the most awful crimes imaginable, yet even their lives do not lose that dignity. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, there are ways to safeguard the common good that do not involve an ‘attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.’ To the extent that we accept the killing done by the state in our name, we are all complicitous, and we are all brutalized.”

The Notre Dame president concluded his statement with another appeal to Trump: “You have pardoned many in your last days in power. Please take this final opportunity to act humanely in the cause of upholding the sanctity of life. And I call on all Catholics and everyone of goodwill, regardless of faith, to work to end capital punishment in Indiana, the United States and the rest of the world.”

Source: news.nd.edu, Father John Jenkins, January 10, 2021

🚩 | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.

Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

Tennessee | Man set to be executed files motion claiming DNA evidence will exonerate him

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Attorneys for death row inmate Tony Carruthers filed a motion in Shelby County Criminal Court seeking immediate DNA testing on evidence they claim will prove his innocence in a 1994 triple murder. Carruthers is scheduled for execution on May 12. He was convicted and sentenced to death for the kidnapping and murders of 24-year-old Marcellos Anderson, 17-year-old Delois Anderson, and 21-year-old Frederick Scarborough. Prosecutors at trial alleged the victims were buried alive in a Memphis cemetery as part of a drug-related robbery.

Florida | Man avoids death penalty in Daytona Beach triple murder

Jerome Anderson shot and killed Antoine Melvin, 42, John Burch, 65, and Patrick Lassiter, 35, in 2023. A man pleaded no contest to a triple-murder in Daytona Beach and was sentenced April 20 to three consecutive life terms in prison as part of a plea deal in which he avoided a possible death sentence. Jerome Anderson, 41, was indicted on three counts of first-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in the 2023 triple-slaying. Anderson pleaded no contest to the three first-degree murder charges April 20 and, in exchange, Assistant State Attorney Andrew Urbanak agreed not to continue to pursue the death penalty.

20 Minutes to Death: Witness to the Last Execution in France

The following document is a firsthand account of the final moments of Hamida Djandoubi, a convicted murderer executed by guillotine at Marseille’s Baumettes Prison on September 10, 1977. The record—dated September 9—was written by Monique Mabelly, a judge appointed by the state to witness the proceedings. Djandoubi’s execution would ultimately be the last carried out in France before capital punishment was abolished in 1981. At the time, President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing—who had publicly voiced his "deep aversion to the death penalty" prior to his election—rejected Djandoubi’s appeal for clemency. Choosing to let "justice take its course," the President allowed the execution to proceed, just as he had in two previous cases during his term: Christian Ranucci , executed on July 28, 1976 and Jérôme Carrein , executed on June 23, 1977. Hamida Djandoubi , a Tunisian national, was sentenced to death for killing his former lover, Elisabeth Bousquet. He was execu...

Singapore executes man for trafficking 1kg of cannabis

SINGAPORE — Singaporean authorities executed Omar bin Yacob Bamadhaj at Changi Prison on Thursday, April 16, 2026, following his 2019 conviction for importing 1,009.1 grams of cannabis. Bamadhaj, 41, though some reports have cited his age as 46, was arrested on July 12, 2018, during a routine search at the Woodlands Checkpoint. Officers discovered the narcotics wrapped in plastic and hidden within his vehicle as he attempted to enter Singapore from Malaysia. Under the Misuse of Drugs Act, the threshold for the mandatory death penalty involving cannabis is 500 grams, a limit this shipment exceeded by more than double.

Florida Supreme Court upholds death sentence for man who raped & killed girl, babysitter in 1990

FORT MYERS, Fla. — The Florida Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the convictions and death sentences of Joseph Zieler for the 1990 murders of an 11-year-old girl and her babysitter, clearing the way for his execution after decades of the case remaining unsolved. Zieler, 61, was sentenced to death in 2023 for the slayings of Robin Cornell and Lisa Story. The decision by the state’s highest court marks a pivotal moment in one of Southwest Florida’s most notorious cold cases, which saw no progress until a 2016 DNA match linked Zieler to the crime scene.

Florida Schedules Two Executions for Late April

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Governor Ron DeSantis has directed the Florida Department of Corrections to move forward with two executions scheduled for late April 2026, marking a significant ramp-up in the state's use of capital punishment. The scheduled deaths of Chadwick Willacy and James Ernest Hitchcock follow a series of landmark judicial rulings that have kept both men on death row for decades.

Florida executes Chadwick Scott Willacy

STARKE, Fla. -- A Florida man who set his neighbor on fire after she returned from work to find him burglarizing her home was executed Tuesday evening. Chadwick Scott Willacy, 58, received a three-drug injection and was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke for the 1990 killing of Marlys Sather. It was Florida's fifth execution this year. The curtain to the execution chamber went up promptly at the scheduled 6 p.m. time, and the lethal injection got underway two minutes later, after Willacy made a brief statement.

Iran to execute first woman linked to mass protests after ‘forced confessions’

Bita Hemmati and three others have been sentenced to death for 'collusion' and 'propaganda.' Advocates claim the charges are baseless, citing a secretive process and state-televised interrogations. Iranian authorities are preparing to execute Bita Hemmati, the first woman sentenced to death in connection with the mass protests in Tehran in late December and January, according to the US-based non-profit the Human Rights Activists News Agency. Judge Iman Afshari, of Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, sentenced Hemmati, her husband, Mohammadreza Majidi Asl, and Behrouz Zamaninezhad, and Kourosh Zamaninezhad to death on the charge of “operational action for the hostile government of the United States and hostile groups,” in addition to discretionary imprisonment period of five years on the charge of “assembly and collusion against national security.”

Texas | Death Sentence Overturned After 48 Years

The Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Thursday that Clarence Jordan’s punishment was unconstitutional A death sentence handed down by a Harris County jury in 1978 was overturned Thursday by the Court of Criminal Appeals. Clarence Jordan, 70, has been on Texas Death Row for almost 50 years, serving out one of the longest death sentences in the nation while suffering from intellectual disabilities and schizophrenia, his attorney told the Houston Press.

Florida | Man who set neighbor on fire during burglary set to be executed

Chadwick Willacy, 58, is scheduled to receive a three-drug injection starting for the 1990 killing of Marlys Sather. This would be Florida’s fifth execution in 2026 following a record 19 executions last year. A man who set his Brevard County neighbor on fire after she found him burglarizing her home during her lunch break from work is set to be executed Tuesday evening at the Florida State Prison. Chadwick Scott Willacy, 58, is scheduled to receive a three-drug injection starting at 6 p.m. for the 1990 killing of Marlys Sather. Willacy was sentenced to death a year later upon a 9-3 jury recommendation after being convicted of first-degree murder, burglary, robbery and arson.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog