1) CHURCH TEACHING ON DEATH PENALTY INCLUDED IN 2011-2012 EDITION OF U.S. CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS’ RESPECT LIFE PROGRAM
2) LIFE MATTERS: THE DEATH PENALTY (Text of a brochure issued by the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities as part of its 2011-2012 Respect Life Program)
3) 2011 STATE LEGISLATIVE ROUNDUP: EXECUTIONS ENDED IN ILLINOIS, BUT REPEAL EFFORTS STALLED ELSEWHERE
4) OTHER STATE NEWS
5) THE CATHOLIC MOBILIZING NETWORK: A PROGRESS REPORT
6) ‘HOW COULD I SAY NO?’ by Most Rev. Richard F. Stika
7) QUOTE: THE JURORS’ DILEMMA
8) CACP ANNUAL FINANCIAL REPORT FOR 2010
9) OBSERVATIONS: LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
1) CHURCH TEACHING ON DEATH PENALTY INCLUDED IN 2011-2012 EDITION OF U.S. CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS’ RESPECT LIFE PROGRAM
For the second year in a row, Catholic teaching on the issue of capital punishment is prominently featured in the annual Respect Life Program, an initiative of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities.
The 2011-2012 program consists of a series of eight pamphlets, each designed to provide, in the USCCB’s words, “convincing support for the teachings of the church on a major pro-life issue, with facts and reasoning drawn from science, history, law, sociology, and other secular sources.”
One of them, titled Life Matters: The Death Penalty, calls the subject “a complex moral issue,” and states that “it is clear that the death penalty no longer serves a useful purpose” in protecting the sanctity of human life.
“Perhaps once it was the only way society could protect itself from those who would destroy the life of others,” it says, “but today in most modern nations, judicial and penal systems have improved so much that they effectively remove further danger to innocent people by incarcerating the perpetrators of criminal violence.”
The title of each of the seven other pamphlets in the series begins with the words “Life Matters: . . . ” and is followed by a description of the particular issue discussed; i.e., abortion, the right to life of persons with disabilities, in vitro fertilization, embryo research, the sanctity of marriage, assisted suicide/euthanasia, and contraception.
All eight full-color pamphlets are available in both English and Spanish, and are accessible from the USCBB website as PDF documents that can be printed as parish bulletin inserts. Additional information is available from the website of the USCCB’s Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities (http://www.usccb.org/respectlife).
The Respect Life Program begins each year on Respect Life Sunday, the first Sunday in October. The program is highlighted in liturgies and marked by special events.
The USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities is chaired by Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, Archbishop of Galveston-Houston, Texas. Other members include Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, Pa.; Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas.; Bishops Daniel E. Flores (Brownsville, Texas), William E. Lori (Bridgeport, Conn.), Gregory J. Mansour (Eparchy of Saint Maron, Brooklyn, N.Y.), Robert J. McManus (Worcester, Mass.) and Terry Steib (Memphis, Tenn.); and Auxiliary Bishop Martin D. Holley of Washington, D.C.
The death penalty issue was restored as a component of the Respect Life Program in the 2010 cycle, after Cardinal DiNardo became chair of the committee. For the previous three years (2007-2009), the program had included nothing about the topic.
CACP members had urged DiNardo and the other bishops on the committee to restore the issue to the program in order to emphasize opposition to capital punishment as an integral component of the church’s pro-life message. Failure to do so, they warned, would sow doubt and confusion in the minds of fellow Catholics, the general public, and the media about the church’s concern for human life at all stages.
2) LIFE MATTERS: THE DEATH PENALTY (Text of a brochure issued by the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities as part of its 2011-2012 Respect Life Program)
We live in a culture of death: a culture torn by abortion and euthanasia, by wanton violence, war, murder, and hatred. Life is treated as if it were cheap, and many are the threats to the dignity of human life. Yet we believe that all human life is from God, and he alone is the master of life and of death. Blessed John Paul II made the defense of the dignity of all human life the centerpiece of his pontificate.
The death penalty presents itself as a complex moral issue because of the apparently conflicting demands of justice on one hand and charity on the other. Some crimes are so serious and so heinous that they seem to cry out for the ultimate punishment of death. And yet the Gospel message is forever one of forgiveness, of reconciliation, of committed charity toward all without exceptions.
Christian teaching since the time of Christ has never considered the death penalty in itself intrinsically evil. The Fifth Commandment which instructs us “thou shall not kill,” has always been understood to refer to innocent human life, and not to those guilty of the most terrible crimes.
Christians have always believed in the right of self-defense because every person has an obligation to guard his own life as a gift from God. And society clearly has a right to defend itself from aggressors, both external (by means of war as a last resort) and internal (such as murderers, serial killers, terrorists, and those guilty of treason). The question for a Christian is not so much whether there has been validity for the death penalty, but whether it should or should not be imposed today.
And today it is clear that the death penalty no longer serves a useful purpose in protecting the sanctity of human life. Perhaps once it was the only way society could protect itself from those who would destroy the life of others, but today in most modern nations, judicial and penal systems have improved so much that they effectively remove further danger to innocent people by incarcerating the perpetrators of criminal violence. Imprisonment is effective in removing the offender from society. Importantly, it allows time for repentance and rehabilitation. And the one sure result of executing prisoners is to make us as a people more vengeful—seeking retribution and satisfying our outrage at the violent crime by more violence.
As Christians we are asked to visit the imprisoned, minister to their needs, and encourage them to repent and change. We should never lose our conviction that even the worst offenders are our brothers and sisters in Christ, who offers forgiveness and eternal life to all. That process of reform takes time, often quite a long time. The death penalty takes that opportunity for conversion away.
One noteworthy example of a delayed conversion began with a rapist’s brutal attack on an eleven-year-old girl. When she resisted him, the twenty-year-old assailant stabbed her fourteen times and left her to die. Had he not been a minor himself, he would have received the death penalty for his heinous crime. Instead, his sentence was 30 years imprisonment. During his first three years behind bars, the murderer remained unrepentant and even hostile to a visiting priest. But after a visit from the local bishop and a dream in which his victim forgave him, he repented and resolved to lead an exemplary life. After serving his full sentence, he sought the forgiveness of his victim’s family and the parish community before becoming a lay brother of the Order of Capuchin Franciscans. By now you may have guessed that his victim was St. Maria Goretti, and his name was Alessandro Serenelli. He later had the unique honor of attending the canonization of the child saint whom he had martyred. Had Alessandro been executed, the story would have had a tragically different ending.
Today, thanks to the ministry in prisons by Catholics and other Christians, countless inmates serving life sentences have allowed God to transform their lives. They lead Bible study groups, pray with fellow inmates, and counsel them to lead lives of virtue, placing all their trust in the Lord’s merciful love.
The death penalty may make us think that we have eliminated a problem—but a person, even a criminal, is never a problem to be destroyed. It lulls us into thinking we have addressed the problem, but we have not really dealt with the deeper issues of what has gone wrong in society when violent crime is so widespread. Death is an all too simple “solution” for a much more complex set of problems we need to face as a society. There are as many degrees of guilt and culpability as there are crimes, yet the death penalty imposes one definitive, final, indiscriminate punishment on all, halting the action of the Holy Spirit on the condemned person’s soul for eternity.
We all know too well the inadequacies of our society. In a real sense our society’s dysfunctions breed our criminals through poverty, fatherlessness, discrimination, injustice, lack of opportunity, and hopelessness. How much of the gang violence linked to the drug trade is occasioned by the addiction of the whole society to illegal drugs we use to escape reality? And many of our social pathologies make us more prone to crime and violence. We don’t fix those problems by executing people. The death penalty just aggravates the injustices we have not yet been able to overcome.
Despite the virtues of our justice system, we have to honestly admit it also has serious limitations. With scandalous frequency, people on death row have later been shown to be innocent of the crime for which they were convicted. DNA testing and other conclusive forms of evidence have resulted in the exoneration of well over 100 death row inmates. Nor can we overlook the fact that persons with mental illness or intellectual disabilities are put to death, despite their lesser degrees of culpability. But the death penalty once applied is irrevocable, and human life cannot be given back once eliminated.
As time goes on our society seems increasingly reluctant to impose the death penalty, as it is imposed far less frequently now. There seems to be a growing consciousness that there is something wrong about using violence to discourage violence, that it serves no good purpose. We would be better as a people if we were to end it altogether. Many families of victims, too, are hopeful of seeing an end to the death penalty, feeling that no punishment can bring back their loved one and that it is better to forgive and hope for a change on the part of the criminal.
People instinctively know it is better to let the offender remain in prison and, hopefully over time, repent of his crime and change his life. To that end, the goal of Christian prison ministry was beautifully expressed by Pope Benedict XVI:
“Chaplains and their collaborators are called to be heralds of God’s infinite compassion and forgiveness.... They are entrusted with the weighty task of helping the incarcerated rediscover a sense of purpose so that, with God’s grace, they can reform their lives, be reconciled with their families and friends, and, insofar as possible, assume the responsibilities and duties which will enable them to conduct upright and honest lives.” (Address to the International Commission of Catholic Prison Pastoral Care, Sept. 6, 2007)
This is the way of Christian mercy and reconciliation, and a challenge to all who call themselves Christian.
Quote:
“If bloodless means are sufficient to defend human lives against an aggressor and to protect public order and the safety of persons, public authority must limit itself to such means, because they better correspond to the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2267)
Quote:
“The nature and extent of the punishment must be carefully evaluated and decided upon, and ought not go to the extreme of executing the offender except in cases of absolute necessity: In other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society. Today however, as a result of steady improvements in the organization of the penal system, such cases are very rare if not practically non-existent.” (Blessed John Paul II, The Gospel of Life, no. 56)
(The above text is reprinted from one of eight 8-panel brochures in a series called “Life Matters,” issued as part of the 2011-2012 Respect Life Program of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities. Each brochure addresses the teachings of the Catholic Church on a major pro-life issue. All eight pamphlets are available in English and Spanish, and each is accessible as a PDF for use as a parish bulletin insert. Copies of the printed brochures are available from USCCB Publishing, 3211 4th Street NE, Washington DC 20017 (www. usccbpublishing.org); 800-235-8722; customer service e-mail: css@usccb.org.
3) 2011 STATE LEGISLATIVE ROUNDUP: EXECUTIONS ENDED IN ILLINOIS, BUT REPEAL EFFORTS STALLED ELSEWHERE
Since the previous issue of CACP News Notes was published (December 15, 2010), much has happened in state legislatures regarding efforts to end capital punishment and Catholic-oriented involvement in those efforts. Some highlights:
ILLINOIS: In March, Gov. Pat Quinn, a Catholic Democrat, won praise from the state’s Catholic bishops for having signed into law legislation that abolishes the state's death penalty. Quinn signed the bill on March 9, Ash Wednesday.
A statement issued the same day by the Illinois Catholic Conference, composed of all the state’s bishops, said the organization “commends the Governor on his approval of this legislation and thanks all the fellow advocates and Illinois lawmakers who have supported the repeal of the death penalty in Illinois.
“As we begin the Lenten season on this Ash Wednesday,” the statement continued, "and we reflect on the crucifixion of Jesus and the mystery of His death and resurrection, there is no better time for this landmark law to be approved. The end of the use of the death penalty advances the development of a culture of life in our state.”
The new law also provides funding to services for victims’ families and for law enforcement training. The legislation was approved by the State Senate and the House in early January. At that time, the bishops urged Quinn to approve the measure, stating: “Capital punishment is no longer required to protect Illinois’ citizens. Life without parole and Illinois’ Truth in Sentencing laws can and must be used to guarantee that the guilty offenders who would have been put to death under the previous system will instead spend the rest of their lives in prison.”
The statement was signed by Cardinal Francis George, OMI, archbishop of Chicago, and the bishops of the Dioceses of Belleville, Joliet, Peoria, Rockford and Springfield.
In a statement after having signed the bill into law, Quinn quoted the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin as saying that “in a complex, sophisticated democracy like ours, means other than the death penalty are available and can be used to protect society.” Bernardin served as archbishop of Chicago from 1982 to 1996.
Among others who had urged Quinn to sign the bill was Stockton (Calif.) Bishop Stephen E. Blaire, chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development. Enactment of the bill, he said in a March 3 letter to Quinn, would “further Illinois’ leadership role in turning away from the death penalty with all its moral problems and issues of fairness and justice.”
Despite strong backing by Catholic bishops and other church leaders, bills to abolish the death penalty failed to pass in the 2011 legislative sessions in several other states.
CONNECTICUT: A repeal bill failed in mid-May when two key “swing vote” senators announced their opposition to the bill after meeting with a prominent physician whose wife and two daughters were killed in a widely-publicized 2007 home invasion and who urged the lawmakers not to vote for repeal.
Among dozens of Connecticut religious leaders who gathered in the state capital in April to call for repeal was Most Rev. Peter A. Rosazza, retired auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Hartford.
Rosazza, representing the Connecticut Catholic Public Affairs Conference (www.ctcatholic.org), composed of all the state’s bishops, said that the Catholic Church opposes the death penalty because it violates the sanctity of life. “Human life is a gift from God that must be respected from conception to natural death,” Rosazza said. “Our profound respect for human life also explains why we are opposed to any attack against human life, including abortion and euthanasia.”
The repeal bill had been approved April 12 by the legislature’s Joint Judiciary Committee.
Rosazza noted that Connecticut was the last state in New England to abolish slavery, and added: “We hope it is not the last state to abolish the death penalty.”
He and the others presented a letter signed by more than 300 clergy supporting passage of the repeal measure, which would have replaced the death penalty with sentences of life in prison for convicted murderers. A similar bill was passed by lawmakers in 2009, but was vetoed by Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell.
If the Connecticut bill had been passed, current Gov. Dan P. Malloy, a Catholic Democrat with undergraduate and law degrees from Boston College, was expected to sign it into law. During his 2010 campaign, Malloy, a former federal prosecutor, repeatedly stated he was opposed to the death penalty.
MARYLAND: The legislature ended its 2011 session on April 11 without passing a measure to abolish the state’s rarely-used death penalty. Two years ago, Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley, a Catholic, made a major push for repeal. Although his proposal was narrowly defeated, lawmakers agreed on a compromise bill that significantly narrowed the scope of the state’s death penalty law.
Among those testifying on March 15 in favor of repeal was Baltimore Auxiliary Bishop Denis J. Madden, representing the Maryland Catholic Conference (www.mdcathcon.org). The state’s last execution was in December 2005. Five men are on Maryland’s death row.
MONTANA: On March 18, a Senate-passed bill to end the state's death penalty was shelved in the House of Representatives. The measure, endorsed by the state’s Catholic bishops, would have replaced capital punishment with sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The State Senate had voted in favor of the bill on February 14, a week after the Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony from relatives of murder victims, church leaders, state prosecutors and jail wardens. Among those testifying in favor of repeal were Helena Bishop George Leo Thomas and CACP member Marietta Jaeger Lane. In 2009 a similar abolition bill passed the Republican-controlled Senate but was held up in a House committee by only one vote.
KANSAS: Lawmakers adjourned without taking action on a repeal bill sponsored by the House Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee. It would have replaced the state’s death penalty with life in prison without parole as the maximum sentence for the crime of aggravated murder. But the bill’s backers plan to continue their efforts in the 2012 legislative session.
“This legislation will enable Kansas law enforcement officials to use the existing sentence of life without parole to hold offenders accountable for their crimes and protect the public safety without the unacceptable risk of executing an innocent person,” said CACP member Donna Schneweis, board chair of the Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty. “States across the country are recognizing the flaws of the death penalty. This legislation is the next step to ending this broken, inconsistent policy in Kansas.”
The coalition argued that in Kansas capital cases to date, there have been well documented flaws, including judicial error, jury misconduct, prosecutorial misconduct, withheld evidence, jury instruction issues and ineffective assistance of counsel. The Kansas Supreme Court, it noted, has vacated three death sentences due to such errors.
“The death penalty is rife with problems beyond those in the courtroom,” said Carolyn Zimmerman of Topeka, whose father was murdered in January 1969. “The death penalty continues to impact the victims’ families long after a crime has occurred. A capital trial only prolongs a family’s pain and trauma, and rarely brings the closure families long for.”
Last year, the Senate nearly voted to abolish the death penalty, but the legislation failed on a 20-20 vote. “Although the legislature did not hear the bill this year,” said the KCADP’s Schneweis, “many Kansans have indicated their support by signing a repeal pledge. Our staff and volunteers have been busy speaking to individuals and groups throughout the state.” More information on the repeal campaign is available from the KCADP website at www.ksabolition.org.
OHIO: The state’s ten Catholic bishops joined in urging state legislators to end executions. “Just punishment can occur without resorting to the death penalty,” a February 4 statement by the Catholic Conference of Ohio (www.ohiocathconf.org) said. “Our church teachings consider the death penalty to be wrong in almost all cases.”
A repeal bill (HB 160) was introduced in the House on March 15, but no similar bill was filed in the Senate before lawmakers adjourned for the summer. Hearings on the House bill may be held in the fall, according to the group Ohioans to Stop Executions (www.otse.org). [Update: On September 27, State Sen. Edna Brown (Dem.) announced plans to introduce an abolition bill in the Senate.]
“Murder rightly evokes moral outrage and a call for justice,” the bishops said. “It also calls for spiritual healing and caring support for all those impacted by such a tragedy. Just punishment—punishment that reflects the seriousness of the offense, seeks restoration for the offense, and protects society—is a foundational moral principle within our justice system.
“Every human being is a child of God, no matter what sins the person commits,” they continued. “Every human life has infinite dignity because it is designed by God to be immortal. Today, given the means available to the State for dealing with crime, cases where it is absolutely necessary to use the death penalty are practically nonexistent. In other states and countries, life imprisonment has shown itself to be an effective alternative. Life imprisonment respects the moral view that all life, even that of the worst offender, has value and dignity.”
The bishops’ statement followed calls by former Ohio Supreme Court Justice Paul Pfeifer and by Terry Collins, former director of the state’s Department of Corrections, for a debate about the issue. Pfeifer, a Republican, helped write the state’s death penalty law in 1981 and was one of its leading proponents as a state legislator in the 1970s and 1980s. But now, he said, it’s being used in cases for which it wasn't intended.
Ohio put eight people to death last year, the most since 1949. There are currently more than 150 prisoners on death row. “I think the best answer is for the governor to just commute them all ... and say we don’t need the death penalty in Ohio any longer,” Pfeifer said in a January newspaper interview.
NEW MEXICO: “Repealing the repeal of the death penalty would be a step backwards for our state,” said Santa Fe Archbishop Michael Sheehan on January 21, following a call for reinstatement by the state’s new governor.
Sheehan said the death penalty was cruel and unnecessary, did not deter people from committing murder, and cost more than life imprisonment.
Republican Gov. Susana Martinez, a former prosecutor, made the proposal in her State of the State address to the 2011 legislature in January. “When a monster rapes and murders a child or a criminal kills a police officer, the death penalty should be an option for the jury,” she said.
“I believe that a climate of respect for life that includes opposition to capital punishment is very important,” Sheehan said. “I hope that our legislators will remain firm that the repeal of the death penalty signed into law two years ago in our state will remain in place.”
Former Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson signed a measure in March 2009 abolishing executions, citing flaws in how the death penalty was applied and saying the criminal justice system must be perfect if it’s going to put someone to death.
On March 8, a bill to restore the death penalty, filed by Republican Rep. Dennis Kintigh, was tabled by a House committee. Also tabled was a joint resolution introduced by Kintigh that would have put the question before voters in 2012 as a proposed amendment to the state constitution.
VIRGINIA: For the fifth consecutive year, lawmakers considered legislation opposed by the state’s Catholic bishops that would have expanded the death penalty law to allow murder accomplices to receive death sentences. Under current law, executions are, with very few exceptions, reserved for the actual perpetrators, or so-called “triggermen.” An expansion bill was introduced in the Senate, but was stopped by an 8-6 vote in the Senate Courts of Justice Committee in early February.
NEBRASKA: A bill (LB 276) to replace the death penalty with sentences of life imprisonment was advanced by the Judiciary Committee of the state’s unicameral legislature in late March. James R. Cunningham, executive director of the Nebraska Catholic Conference, reports that although the bill is not “prioritized legislation” for this year, it is expected to be the subject of floor debate in the 2012 session.
At a March 4 hearing on the bill, Cunningham reiterated Catholic teaching that if nonlethal means are sufficient to defend the innocent and preserve public order and safety, the state must limit itself to such means.
“We understand and respect the fact that many people have legitimate concerns and fears about violence and the frequency of heinous crimes in their communities,” he said. “Just retribution is a legitimate desire. Nonetheless, it cannot be truly achieved under the veil of vengeance and its own form of violence. In our view, all Nebraskans, personally and collectively, face the challenge of rejecting a culture of death and embracing a culture of life. This means overcoming all ways in which killing is proposed as a solution to a problem.”
4) OTHER STATE NEWS
ARIZONA: Prior to the July 19 execution of Thomas West, 52, for a 1987 murder, Tucson Bishop Jerry Kicanas joined with relatives, lawyers and psychologists who urged that West’s sentence be commuted to life in prison because he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder due to physical and sexual abuse as a child.
Kicanas noted that “there is a good likelihood that Mr. West was abused, not just by one perpetrator, but probably three times by three different individuals: a special education teacher, a neighbor, and possibly a priest.”
The Arizona Board of Executive Clemency ruled 3 to 5 against commutation of West’s sentence, allowing the execution to proceed.
A similar plea for mercy was made by Kicanas and the other Catholic bishops of Arizona prior to the March 29 execution of Eric King, 47. In it, they termed the death penalty “an act of eye-for-an-eye vengeance that contradicts the values of our nation and that denies the dignity and sanctity of human life.”
CALIFORNIA: The journey of Jeanne Woodford from being the warden of San Quentin Prison, where California’s death row and execution chamber are located, to leading a national anti-death-penalty organization was the subject of a June 21 article in the Catholic San Francisco archdiocesan newspaper.
Woodford, a lifelong Catholic, said that although she long opposed capital punishment on moral grounds, she does not try to convince people regarding personal moral decisions. She took no pleasure, however, in being a party to executions. There were four during her 28 years at San Quentin.
“Just imagine asking public servants to wake up every day and have them go to work planning to kill somebody,” she said. “It takes a toll on you. You begin to realize how much you are affected by participating in an execution. You have spent 30 to 60 days planning to kill somebody. How can that not affect you?”
Woodford was recently named executive director of Death Penalty Focus (www.deathpenalty.org), a San Francisco-based group that calls for replacing the death penalty with terms of life without parole. Among the arguments in favor of abolishing capital punishment, she noted, are the high costs involved, the potential for executing innocent persons, and the belief that the death penalty does not deter crime. “Our goal is to end capital punishment in California and across the nation,” she said.
FLORIDA: In a July 31 article in the Miami Herald, Archbishop Thomas Wenski of the Miami Archdiocese urged Gov. Rick Scott (Rep.) to commute the death sentence of Manuel Valle to life imprisonment. Valle was originally scheduled to be put to death August 2, but a stay granted by the Florida Supreme Court to review the lethal injection protocol postponed the execution date at least until September 1. [Update: Valle's execution took place on September 28.]
Writing on behalf of all the state’s bishops, Wenski noted that Valle was found guilty of killing one police officer and attempting to shoot another. “These crimes are heinous,” he wrote, “but they were committed more than 30 years ago. After 30 years, is it necessary for the State of Florida to kill this man? Does society really make a coherent statement against killing by killing?
“It is hard to see, he continued, “how capital punishment as ‘social retribution’ or ‘institutional vengeance’ really serves the purpose of punishment, which should be designed to redress the disorder caused by the offense. The death penalty cannot bring the victims back to life.”
“Even from a purely pragmatic or utilitarian point of view,” Wenski wrote, “the death penalty cannot be defended. It is not an effective deterrent to crime. Texas has executed more criminals than any other state; yet, it still has one of the highest murder rates in the nation. And the death penalty is not cost effective. It costs the state less to imprison someone for the remainder of his natural life than to execute him. Given that it is irreversible, society has rightly provided that it be applied only after lengthy and expensive legal appeals. And, in spite of this, there are dozens of documented cases of wrongly convicted innocent people executed in the last century.”
TEXAS: The execution of CACP member Humberto Leal, 38, took place July 7 despite a plea for mercy by the state’s two Catholic archbishops, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston and Most Rev. Gustavo Garcia-Siller of San Antonio.
In a letter asking Gov. Rick Perry (Rep.) to delay Leal’s execution, the prelates noted that Leal was a foreign national who was never given access to a consular representative from his native country, Mexico, at the time of his 1994 arrest. This was a violation of the Vienna Convention, according to a 2004 decision by the International Court of Justice.
The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously agreed that the U.S. was obligated to comply with the ICJ decision, but the court also ruled that Congress must act to implement that decision, the archbishops pointed out. They noted that both the Bush and Obama administrations had supported federal legislation to provide hearings for Leal and others denied their consular rights. “A stay of execution would allow time for Congress to remedy the violations in Mr. Leal’s case,” they wrote.
Others calling for a stay included diplomats, top judges, senior military officers, United Nations officials, President Barack Obama, and his predecessor, George W. Bush. All warned that allowing the execution to proceed could jeopardize U.S. citizens arrested abroad and harm U.S. diplomatic interests.
5) THE CATHOLIC MOBILIZING NETWORK: A PROGRESS REPORT
The Catholic Mobilizing Network to End the Use of the Death Penalty (CMN) was formed in January 2009 to help implement the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty—an initiative begun four years earlier. CMN supports state bishops’ conferences, diocesan offices, and other Catholic organizations in their efforts to end executions and promote restorative justice.
CMN says it seeks to prepare Catholics for “informed involvement” in campaigns to repeal state death penalty laws and to infuse the public debate with the church’s unconditionally pro-life teaching.
“CMN has many accomplishments over the past two-and-a-half years,” says Karen Clifton, executive director of the group, which is affiliated with the Louisiana-based Congregation of St. Joseph’s Ministries Against the Death Penalty. She notes that its website (www.catholicsmobilizing.org) is busy conveying up-to-date information (often via lively Twitter posts) and providing access to educational materials for the classroom and the pulpit as well as pastoral statements, videos, and downloadable “turnkey” workshops that can be used in parishes.
A monthly e-newsletter has been published for the past year. A speakers’ bureau arranges for presentations to groups by several CMN members—Vicki Schieber, chair of the group Murder Victims Families for Human Rights; former financial attorney and now Florida death row chaplain Dale Recinella; Dr. Susan Recinella, a psychologist who ministers to families of death row inmates as well as to families of murder victims; Richard Dowling, former director of the Maryland Catholic Conference; and Dead Man Walking author Sr. Helen Prejean, CSJ.
CMN is in the process of developing an outreach to Spanish-speaking Catholics. Sr. Ilaria Buonriposi, a Comboni Missionary Sister who has 20 years of experience of missionary work in South and Central America, is presently translating and creating materials for Spanish Catholics. Sr. Ilaria will be available to speak at conferences and assist those who minister to Spanish speaking congregations.
This past winter, CMN opened an office at Mount St. Mary's University in Emmitsburg, MD. It is staffed by Vicki Schieber and Dr. Trudy Conway, a professor of philosophy at the school. Conway and other faculty members there have written a textbook on the church’s teaching on capital punishment, to be published in 2012. A course has been developed on the death penalty, a curriculum is being developed on the topic of restorative justice for the summer of 2012, and a formalized intern program has begun.
A second CMN office has been opened at the Washington Theological Union in the nation’s capital to coordinate state activities, national conference presentations, and interactions with national Catholic groups. This office will focus on developing more educational materials and ways of distributing them.
CMN’s workshop guides can be downloaded from its website (www.catholicsmobilizing.org/workshops.cfm). Prepared in conjunction with the organization Equal Justice USA (www.ejusa.org), the workshops enable Catholics to form their consciences on life issues. A basic workshop is designed for Catholics interested in learning more about the death penalty, the church’s teaching on the issue, practical and moral questions posed by the capital punishment debate, and opportunities for involvement in repeal efforts. A workshop guide in Spanish is also offered.
“CMN stands ready to help parish social justice ministers in presenting our workshops and using other educational materials housed on our website,” Clifton says.
Outreach to national groups, both Catholic and secular, is ongoing. In recent months, CMN has logged many travel miles, most recently by hosting an exhibit at the August 9-13 Leadership Conference of Women Religious Assembly in southern California, and, in April, bringing its message to educators at the 2011 convention and expo of the National Catholic Educational Association in New Orleans.
In February, it cosponsored an event in Houston, Texas, called “Dead Man Walking: Religious Leaders Dialog on the Death Penalty,” featuring Cardinal Daniel DiNardo and other faith leaders and moderated by Sr. Prejean. In November, Clifton, Schieber and Prejean (as keynote speaker) will convey the CMN message to the National Council of Catholic Women at its annual convention in Chicago.
“Interaction with colleges and universities is ongoing to establish a strong youth base,” Clifton says. “Materials and curricula are continually being created to assist educators. Networking with state Catholic Conferences and meeting with diocesan leaders in the areas of respect life, social justice and religious education are an important part of our efforts.”
To Clifton, the goal is challenging but achievable. “If America's 67 million Catholics fully embraced the application of church teaching to the question of the death penalty, executions would end in the United States,” she says. “CMN’s purpose is to facilitate that outcome.”
More information on CMN’s activities and goals can be found on its website at www.catholicsmobilizing.org, or can be obtained by writing to CMN at 6896 Laurel St., Washington, DC 20012; by e-mailing to karen@catholicsmobilizing.org; or by calling 202-541-5290.
6) ‘HOW COULD I SAY NO?’ by Most Rev. Richard F. Stika
Following are excerpts from an April 10, 2011 article by Most Rev. Richard F. Stika, Bishop of Knoxville, Tenn., in the East Tennessee Catholic News.
As a priest in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, I used to visit inmates on death row. There are personal reasons why some would think I had good reason for not wanting that ministry.
My family was touched by a horrific crime in 1978. Two of my uncles tragically lost their lives during a robbery of their store by a 16-year-old. I struggled between the desire for a justice that demanded an “eye for an eye” and one of mercy and forgiveness.
The youth who committed the crime lived in the same neighborhood as my uncles. He was arrested six months later for the execution-like murders he committed, and he killed himself in jail a short time later.
As a new seminarian, I volunteered to work in the very area where this young man had grown so heartless. The experience opened my eyes to yet another part of this horrible tragedy and helped me to pray for all the victims—my uncles and the youth who took their lives as well as their families.
The attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II in 1981 by Ali Agca awakened in me the emotions I had felt three years earlier, but the pope’s call for mercy deeply impressed me. Shortly after the attempt on his life, John Paul called on everyone to “pray for my brother [Agca] . . . whom I have sincerely forgiven.” John Paul would later visit him in prison to personally express his forgiveness.
In 1999 John Paul II visited St. Louis, a visit I helped coordinate. I remember the moment when the pope leaned over to Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan and said, “Show mercy for Mr. Mease.”
The governor knew what was being asked of him: Darrell Mease had been scheduled for execution on the day of the pope’s arrival for a triple murder committed in 1988. But so that the papal visit and execution would not coincide, it was rescheduled to take place after the pope’s departure.
At the pope’s request, however, Gov. Carnahan commuted the death sentence to life in prison without parole, later explaining, “How could I say no to the pope who had forgiven the man who attempted to kill him?”
I toured the execution chamber in Washington County, Mo., where the sentence of death is administered. Several things stood out. The first was the gurney with its multiple straps for securing the prisoner and the arm wings that pivot outward for administering the injections. It forms the image of a cross. Not far away was a room divided by a chain-link fence where the prisoner is moved 48 hours before the execution. A guard on the other side of the fence keeps vigil with the prisoner to ensure that he doesn’t take his own life before the execution.
Traditionally the Church has not excluded recourse to the death penalty when it is the only effective way of protecting the public from an unjust aggressor. Even during war, however, it has long been recognized as unjust and criminal to kill an enemy combatant who has surrendered or been wounded and rendered helpless. If soldiers understand and honor this tradition on the battlefield, should we not also embrace it in our criminal justice system?
7) QUOTE: THE JURORS’ DILEMMA
“Juries, which are made up of ordinary citizens with godlike power, have a terrible responsibility. We put twelve people behind closed doors for hours or days and let them decide whether a person lives or dies. They don’t have the tools to do that. They don’t know what evidence may have been hidden from them in the trial. Even if they know for sure that this person is guilty of the crime, do they get to look at mitigating circumstances? Parents of the victim ask the jurors to ‘please kill this bastard who killed my boy.’ Parents of the accused beg the jurors not to kill their son. What’s a human being to do with that?”
—Anti-death-penalty activist and best-selling author Sr. Helen Prejean, CSJ, in an interview in the August 2010 issue of the University of Chattanooga’s Sun Magazine.
8) CACP ANNUAL FINANCIAL REPORT FOR 2010
Income (Contributions): $7,280.18
Expenses: $8,084.17 [Includes costs of printing ($4,017.86), postage/PO box rental ($2,799.20), bank charges ($99.00), supplies/publications ($269.03), ads/contributions to other organizations ($90.00), website/computer/fax ($809.08), salaries/travel expenses ($0)]
Carryover deficit from 12/31/09: –$124.30
Deficit as of 12/31/10: –$928.29
9) OBSERVATIONS: LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
The huge bottom-line deficit in CACP’s Income/Expense report for 2010 is a bit misleading. It shows the financial balance at the very end of last year, which was only two weeks after the most recent issue of CACP News Notes (December 15, 2010) had been printed and mailed and its costs totted up. As with all CACP mailings, that one resulted in a number of contributions from members and friends. But most of those donations didn’t reach us until the beginning of the new year, so they weren’t included as 2010 income. As they trickled in, the deficit dwindled. And, as we write this, CACP is financially solvent.
So once again, we express our thanks for your generous contributions, which, along with your prayers and informational input, have enabled CACP to hang in there for twenty years.
Financial solvency doesn’t last long here, of course. As soon as this issue is printed and mailed, we’ll be in the red again; that’s how things go. At some later point, the bills will be paid off, and that will be an incentive to publish another newsletter. We hope to be able to do that around the end of the year, with an issue that coincides with, and recalls, CACP’s beginnings two decades ago.
Having said all this, we do apologize for the large eight-month gap between the last issue and this one. Both big and small nonprofit groups are experiencing hard times, and CACP is no exception.
But the delay wasn’t a bad thing, actually. It gave us the opportunity to amass a comprehensive (we hope) roundup of Catholic-oriented activities in the state legislatures concerning the death penalty during 2011. It also allowed us to include the just-announced news about the Catholic bishops’ Respect Life Program for the coming year, which features an excellent brochure on the church’s teaching regarding capital punishment (see pages 3 and 4).
We’ve never been big fans of strategic planning or goal-setting, but as CACP prepares to enter its third decade, we can’t help thinking about the organization’s future, and are asking the Holy Spirit for his/her help in charting a course for that future. Among the questions we have:
Might it be time to discontinue the print version of CACP News Notes and concentrate our energies on upgrading the website (www.cacp.org) and/or doing e-mailings to members?
Should CACP continue to exist independently, and, if so, should its reins be turned over to people who are younger and/or more capable than we? To put things into perspective, if we were Catholic bishops, we would have been required to submit our resignations to the Holy Father earlier this year.
Or should CACP become part of another group, like the Catholic Mobilization Network Against the Use of the Death Penalty, on which one of us currently serves in an advisory capacity? As indicated in the article on page 7, the CMN seems to be making real progress in communicating the church’s teaching about capital punishment in innovative ways.
If you have any ideas or suggestions re these questions, please send them our way. We pray that God will bless you, your loved ones, and your efforts throughout 2011 and beyond. And again, thank you for all your support over the years.
Ellen & Frank
