Pope appeals for US death sentences to be commuted

Pope Francis on Dec. 8 made a special appeal for the lives of death row inmates in the United States to be spared.

"Let us pray for their sentence to be commuted, changed," said the pope. "Let us think of these brothers and sisters of ours and ask the Lord to save them from death."

The pope's remarks come at a critical time when American Catholic leaders are pushing U.S. President Joe Biden to commute the sentences of the 40 inmates currently on death row.

The Catholic Mobilizing Network, a leading advocacy group opposing capital punishment, has appealed directly to the Biden administration to use his remaining time in office to take immediate action before President Donald Trump returns to office next month.

During his first term, Trump reinstated federal executions, including a surge of 13 executions over a six-month period.

The death penalty is inadmissible

"Trump has a sordid history with executions," said Catholic Mobilizing Network's executive director Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy in an earlier interview with the National Catholic Reporter. "Now is not the time to step back from death penalty abolition."

The pope's remarks came during his weekly Sunday Angelus prayer delivered from the window of the Vatican's Apostolic Palace. He asked the faithful gathered there and listening in from around the world to join him in prayer that death row inmates receive mercy.

In 2018, Francis updated the official Catechism of the Catholic Church to declare the death penalty to be "inadmissible."

"The death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person," states the new language, which commits the Catholic Church toward its global abolition.

Source: ncronline.org, Christopher White, December 8, 2024

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

— Oscar Wilde

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Cartoons about Capital Punishment

More cartoons about capital punishment HERE

Spared execution eight times, oldest inmate in US dies at 101 after 76 years behind bars

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Japan executes man convicted of killing five in 2009 Osaka pachinko parlor arson

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Texas | A Dangerous Man. At 18, Billy Joe Wardlow took a man’s life. Nearly 30 years later, the state still wants his.

Like any place humans gather, death row has a culture. Billy Wardlow says it's different in many ways from general population. One is in how new inmates are treated. "In [general population], the guys around you would try to find some way to exploit you," Wardlow said. "Death row, with a few exceptions, will often extend a hand of friendship to the 'new boot' so they can get on their feet ... Most of us get together and let each other know what we can send to the new guy." One of the cherished myths of those who support the death penalty is that it is reserved for the “worst of the worst,” those beyond redemption. Wardlow typically sends writing materials, food, clothes, and hygiene products. Recently, after receiving some of these items, a new inmate asked Wardlow what he owed him. "I told him to remember how guys helped him when he saw someone else new," Wardlow said. "Pay it forward, as the saying goes." Sending gift...

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