Death Penalty News

Utah's Roman Catholic leaders are expressing dismay that, for the first time in more than a decade, the state is poised to execute an inmate. The Salt Lake City diocese is urging parish priests to remind Catholics what the church teaches about the death penalty: that it cannot be justified when there are other ways to keep society safe. The message to priests was included in the weekly bulletin sent to parishes where 300,000 Utah Catholics worship. It urges Catholics to learn more about the issue on the Web sites of a new anti-death penalty group in Utah ( http://www.utadp.org/ ) and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Campaign to end the death penalty ( www.usccb.org/deathpenalty ). Dee Rowland, the head of the diocese's Peace and Justice Commission, says there will be a prayer vigil at the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City in the hours before any execution of Ronnie Lee Gardner this spring. The traditional teaching of the Catholic Church is that state...

Kaczynski’s conservative views and forthright comments made waves in other spheres too, and he occasionally clashed with E.U. partners over what some Poles saw as attempts to foist liberal “European values” on the predominantly Roman Catholic country. In 2007 Poland angered its European partners when it stood alone in opposing plans to hold a symbolic “European day against the death penalty,” denying the 27-member union the consensus it needed to go ahead with the event. Warsaw argued that Europe should instead mark a “right to life” day, with abortion and euthanasia on the agenda along with capital punishment. When Poland had earlier gone through the E.U. accession process it ratified a protocol to the European Charter on Human Rights declaring that “the death penalty shall be abolished,” but Lech Kaczynski (pictured) argued that giving up the death penalty would give the criminal relative advantage over the victim. He predicted that the E.U., in time, would come to realize that ca...

By Reverend Matt Randles Pastor, Headwaters Covenant Church In the Easter season, we remember Jesus' crucifixion and death for the sin of the world. Christians declare that Jesus' death brings life, so how can we then demand the death of certain criminals? The Old Testament says, "You are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth." But developing a biblical understanding of capital punishment isn't as simple as appropriating select verses from the Old Testament. Are we prepared to execute those who curse their parents or worship other gods? These are also capital offenses in the Bible. In light of the New Testament, we don't follow Old Testament regulations about such things as burnt offerings, building codes, or dietary laws. Jesus addressed "eye for an eye" and said, "Turn the other cheek." He talked about murder but focused on the root issue of anger. And when faced with an actual situation--a woman guilty of adultery--he ca...

A PASTOR seeking to bolster Uganda's anti-gay laws screened gay porn in a church in the capital Kampala overnight in a bid to gain support. The screening in an evangelical church was attended by around 300 supporters after plans for a "million man march" were thwarted by police. "The major argument homosexuals have is that what people do in the privacy of their bedrooms is nobody's business, but do you know what they do in their bedrooms?" pastor Martin Ssempa asked the crowd. Pastor Ssempa then displayed a slide show of gay pornographic pictures. "Is this what Obama wants to bring to Africa?" he asked, referring to fierce US criticism of a Ugandan bill drafted last year that would further criminalize homosexuality. The bill would even criminalize public discussion of homosexuality and could penalize people who knowingly rent property to homosexuals. In some instances, homosexuality in Uganda could be punishable by life imprisonment. The pena...

A far right Christian group has urged fellow Christians to support Uganda's proposed law that would make homosexuality punishable by death. Stephen Green, leader of the Christian extremist group 'Christian Voice', remarked: "The Bible calls for the ultimate penalty for sodomy (Lev 20:13) and for rape (Deut 22:25), and our Lord upheld the death penalty when He called for the accusers of the woman caught in adultery to cast the first stone (John 8:7) – if, that is, they were not implicated in adultery themselves. "The contrast between our politicians and those of Uganda could not be more stark. A Parliamentarian in Uganda is trying to protect his nation's children. The House of Commons of the United Kingdom is trying to corrupt ours. Which country is the more civilised, I wonder, in the eyes of Almighty God?" The law would impose the death penalty on those convicted of having gay sex with a minor or disabled person or someone infected with HIV. Fr...

When Ohio inmate Kenneth Biros was executed Dec. 8 with a one-drug lethal injection -- the first person in the U.S. to be executed in this manner -- the Ohio Catholic Conference did not specifically address the execution but instead reiterated the church's opposition to all means of capital punishment. "The death penalty is wrong no matter what you use" to carry it out, Carolyn Jurkowitz, executive director of the Ohio Catholic Conference, told Catholic News Service Dec. 9. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Biros' final appeals the day of his execution. The 51-year-old inmate was executed by one lethal injection, instead of the three-drug cocktail used in all other states, because Ohio adopted this execution method after a failed attempt to execute Romell Broom in mid-September. Prison authorities spent more than two hours trying to find a usable vein in Broom, 53, convicted of the 1984 abduction, rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl. Death penalty opponents ha...

When Texan jurors turned to the Old Testament to determine if a man on death row should die they crossed an important line. The Bible, along with other sacred texts, provides solace and inspiration for billions across the planet. But how literally do its readers take passages such as this one? If he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die, he is a murderer:the murderer shall surely be put to death. Very literally, in some cases. Because this piece of scripture, from the book of Numbers (35:16) in the Old Testament, evidently provides some Christians with what they believe is "literal truth" and a biblical underpinning to their personal support for capital punishment. When a man called Khristian Oliver stood trial for murder in Texas 10 years ago, several jurors consulted the Bible extensively during their deliberations. Key passages were highlighted and handed around among fellow believers. The "smite him" verse was one of them. One of these jurors late...

The death penalty may have finally crossed a shameful line that, if there is any sense of reason or justice in American society, should bring the practice to a swift and final end. The state of Texas, despite all of the safeguards that proponents of the death penalty claim would prevent this from happening, may have executed an innocent man. A story in the Sept. 7 issue of The New Yorker details the case of Cameron Todd Willingham who was executed on Feb. 17, 2004, by lethal injection in the Texas death house at the state prison in Huntsville. Texas has made the most prolific use of the death penalty since its re–establishment in 1977. Willingham was convicted of murdering his three young children after they died in a house fire on Dec. 23, 1991, in Corsicana, Texas. The unemployed auto mechanic had been at home watching the children while his wife was shopping for Christmas presents for their three daughters. He told investigators that his 2–year–old daughter woke him from a nap sayin...

New Mexico's Roman Catholic governor last week signed legislation that abolished the death penalty after discussing the issue with a Roman Catholic archbishop. In Maryland, Gov. Martin O'Malley also a Catholic marched against capital punishment in a failed attempt earlier this month to eliminate executions in his state. Gov. Bobby Jindal, who converted to Catholicism as a young man, said that despite efforts in other states to abolish capital punishment, he has no qualms about the death penalty, which is law in Louisiana. He wants to extend capital punishment to perpetrators who rape young children. The issue of religion surfaced recently in an interview with Jindal after some church officials urged several other Catholic governors to support abolition of the death penalty in their states. Jindal said the Catholic Church deems the death penalty to be permissible. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops disagrees with Jindal. But Pope Benedict may be in his corner. ...

Texas has executed prisoners with a regularity and in record numbers that has earned the state worldwide attention. But, while Texas still led the U.S. in executions in 2008, juries in the state appear to have began to turn away from the ultimate punishment even for the most heinous crimes. Ten men and one woman were sentenced to death in Texas in 2008, according to the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. It was the lowest annual figure since the 1976 reinstatement of the death penalty. Texas handed out more than 20 death sentences in each of 2003 and 2004. In 2005, the number fell to 14, and it has not risen above that annual figure since. "The need for revenge, for vengeance is being curbed, the appetite is no longer there," contends Robert Hirschorn, a nationally known Texas attorney and jury consultant who has helped pick juries for many prominent clients, including, most recently, millionaire real estate mogul Robert Durst, who was found not guilty of killing ...

The Death Penalty Information Center reports that 37 people will be executed in the United States in 2008, down 12 percent from 42 in 2007 and a 30 % drop from 2006. Are we looking at a gradual erosion of support for the death penalty, or a meaningless statistical blip? The AP report notes that Texas accounted for 1/2 of the executions in 2007 (18 of 37, or 48% of the national total). Thats a big improvement from 2007 when Texas executed 26 people (62%) out of the 42 inmates executed nationally. Unlike most reports on this year's numbers, the AP article notes that nearly all of the executions in America this year took place in the South. Only 2 non-Southern states, Oklahoma (2) and Ohio (2) performed executions this year. Although Oklahoma was still a dumping ground for displaced native Americans at the end of the Civil War, it was largely populated by Southerners and is sometimes considered a southern state for statistical purposes. But let's not quibble. Of the 1137 exec...