Thinking of the death penalty

Today’s blog from the Department of Justice, Peace & Human Development of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) focuses on the death penalty. It begins with this quote from Pope Francis:

“All Christians and men of good will are thus called to fight not only for the abolition of the death penalty, whether legal or illegal, and in all its forms, but also to improve prison conditions, with respect for the human dignity of the people deprived of their freedom”

The entry is titled, Yes. The Church Is Opposed to the Death Penalty. This may take some by surprise, but opposition to the death penalty has been a Catholic teaching for many years.

Pope Saint John Paul II prayed the following at a Papal Mass at Regina Coeli Prison in Rome on July 9, 2000: "May the death penalty, an unworthy punishment still used in some countries, be abolished throughout the world." He also spoke out against it on many occasions, such as the previous year when he said the following on a visit to the United States:

A sign of hope is the increasing recognition that the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil. Modern society has the means of protecting itself, without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform. I renew the appeal I made most recently at Christmas for a consensus to end the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary.

In 1999, the USCCB issued A Good Friday Appeal To End The Death Penalty. They wrote, in part:

For more than 25 years, the Catholic bishops of the United States have called for an end to the death penalty in our land. Sadly, however, death sentences and executions in this country continue at an increasing rate. In some states, there are so many executions they rarely receive much attention anymore. On this Good Friday, a day when we recall our Savior’s own execution, we appeal to all people of goodwill, and especially Catholics, to work to end the death penalty.

There is much more information on the website of the Catholic Mobilizing Network to End the Use of the Death Penalty.

Many Prisoners on Death Row are Wrongfully Convicted

Scientific American magazine reports that researchers estimate that more than 340 U.S. inmates that could have been exonerated were sentenced to death since 1973. According to the magazine:

. . . a team of researchers has concluded that about 4.1 percent of criminal defendants who are sentenced to death are falsely convicted. The approach allows researchers to “actually come up with a valid estimate of the rate of false convictions—knowing something that people say [in criminal justice] is not knowable,” says study author Samuel Gross, a law professor at the University of Michigan Law School and editor of the National Registry of Exonerations, a U.S.-focused exoneration database. What makes the analysis possible is that data on the potential need for exoneration from death penalty cases come to light more often than it does for other types of criminal proceedings. All death sentences in the U.S. are based on crimes that include homicide.

You can read more here.

This is just one of the reasons why the Catholic Church opposes the death penalty. You can more here.

Maryland Senate votes to repeal the death penalty

The Washington Post reports that Maryland Senate voted to repeal the death penalty, moving the state closer to becoming the sixth in as many years to abolish executions.

The 27 to 20 vote was widely seen as a key step in ending capital punishment in Maryland, which has not executed a death-row prisoner since 2005. The legislation now goes before the House of Delegates, where a vote could come as early as next week.

The House is expected to approve the measure, handing Gov. Martin ’Malley a long-sought legislative victory at a time when he is weighing a run for national office in 2016. 

“It’s time to end this ineffective and expensive practice and put our efforts behind crime fighting strategies that work,” O’Malley (D) said in a statement.  

Shari Silberstein, executive -director of Equal Justice USA, a group that is working to end the death penalty, said that Maryland’s action is part of a national trend and that she envisions another half-dozen states adopting the policy in the next several years.  

“Just a few years ago, you wouldn’t have had a governor with national ambitions making this a banner issue,” Silberstein said. “It’s no longer the ‘third rail’ of politics. Voters don’t punish people at the polls for being anti-death penalty.”

You can read more here.

Blessed Are the Merciful

Rais Bhuiyan, a Muslim shot by a white supremacist in the wake of 9/11, describes how his faith led him to forgive his attacker, and the fight to block his execution, here. The white supremacist, Mark Stroman, later wrote on his blog:

"There is a man out there that has every right to hate me for what I did after the 9/11/01 events that rocked our world. This man, Rais, has come to the forefront in an effort to show the world how forgiveness and compassion overrule the human nature of hate. I’m envious of his actions and his kindness speaks volumes. He is an example that the human race should follow. Rais, I’m deeply touched by all you have said and that’s from my heart and soul."

To learn how the story ends, go here.

Bishop DiMarzio on capital punishment

Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn addresses the issue of the death penalty in the most recent issue of The Tablet, the diocesan newspaper. He writes:

The death penalty and its use will become in our own state an issue about which we must be educated. The Church has always taught that the right of self defense is both an individual right and a societal right. Society has a right to defend itself against aggressors, both externally by means of war as a last resort, and internally by those who are murders, serial killers, terrorists and those guilty of treason. The question for us as Catholics is not whether the death penalty is morally acceptable, but rather whether it should be imposed today.

. . .

The Church always must opt for the conversion of sinners, and prisons, once named penitentiaries, are places where people can do penance and change their lives. There is no better example of this than the case of the murderer of St. Maria Goretti, a teenage girl who resisted rape and was murdered by Alessandro Serenelli.Imprisoned for 30 years, he was truly converted during that time. He became a lay brother with the Brothers of St. Francis, Capuchins, and attended the canonization of St. Maria Goretti. There are other extraordinary cases of conversion. If the Church must be consistent regarding the value of life from the very conception to a natural death, the use of the death penalty is something that the Church should be against in our own day and age.

. . .

Whenever the Church enters into the public policy field with moral teaching, she puts out into the deep and risks misunderstanding and even alienation from some Catholics. Our consistent teaching about life brings us to the firm conclusion that all life should be defended and that the use of the death penalty in our own day and age is not necessary.

The rest of this important column is here.

The Death Penalty Fizzles Again

David Kaczynski, head of New Yorkesr for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, has a blog posting about Ronell Wilson, convicted of killing two undercover police officers in a robbery that netted $120. Originally sentenced to death in a federal trial in 2006, Wilson had his sentence overturned yesterday by a federal appeals court that sent the case back to district court, where Wilson will be sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole.

Commenting on those who expressed outrage over this latest development, Mr. Kaczynski writes:

While their comments may play well politically, they change nothing and only serve to underscore the futility of the death penalty, with its broken promises to hurting victim family members and its untold millions of dollars wasted on political grandstanding.
Meanwhile, young people are dying on the streets Schenectady, Albany, and just about every other urban area in America. Where’s the outrage? Are their lives less valuable?

Here in Schenectady, we have no gang intervention program. No Ceasefire/SNUG program. (Too costly, we are told.) No community policing worthy of the name. The City Council recently declined to renew funding for the Weed & Seed community crime prevention program. Meanwhile, kids’ bodies keep piling up.

I don’t know how much money we taxpayers had to shell out for Ronell Wilson’s capital trial and appeals. Millions of dollars for sure. I can tell you this: the US Government spent an estimated $5 million to prosecute my brother capitally, and $3 million to defend him capitally. Like Ronell Wilson, my brother got life without parole. He stated that he would have preferred death, meaning that our government spent about $8 million trying to accommodate him.

Most of that amount could have been invested in effective crime prevention, treatment for the mentally ill, and real assistance to crime victims and their families – all efforts which (unlike the costly and futile death penalty) have been shown to save money and lives.

The entire blog entry is available here.

Death penalty injustice?

Former Republican Congressman Bob Barr, a supporter of the death penalty, writes about a case in which an innocent man may be executed.

There is no abuse of government power more egregious than executing an innocent man. But that is exactly what may happen if the United States Supreme Court fails to intervene on behalf of Troy Davis.

Mr. Davis is facing execution for the 1989 murder of an off-duty police officer in Savannah, Ga., even though seven of the nine witnesses have recanted their testimony against him. Many of these witnesses now say they were pressured into testifying falsely against him by police officers who were understandably eager to convict someone for killing a comrade. No court has ever heard the evidence of Mr. Davis's innocence.

After the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit barred Mr. Davis from raising his claims of innocence, his attorneys last month petitioned the Supreme Court for an original writ of habeas corpus. This would be an extraordinary procedure - provided for by the Constitution but granted only a handful of times since 1900. However, absent this, Mr. Davis faces an extraordinary and obviously final injustice.
. . .
It would seem in everyone's interest to find out as best we can what really happened that night 20 years ago in a dim parking lot where Officer Mark MacPhail was shot dead. With no murder weapon, surveillance videotape or DNA evidence left behind, the jury that judged Mr. Davis had to weigh the conflicting testimony of several eyewitnesses to sift out the gunman from the onlookers who had nothing to do with the heinous crime.
. . .
I am a firm believer in the death penalty, but I am an equally firm believer in the rights and protections guaranteed by the Constitution. To execute Troy Davis without having a court hear the evidence of his innocence would be unconscionable and unconstitutional.

The rest of the article, which appeared in The New York Times, is available here.

Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ to speak in November

The Commission on Peace and Justice of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany is oneof the organizatons that will sponsor a presentation by Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ.

Dead Man Walking: The Journey Continues
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
at 7 pm
La Salle Institute 174 Williams Road, Troy
(next to Hudson Valley Community College)

Sister Helen is widely known as an advocate for the abolition of the death penalty. She wrote Dead Man Walking about her experiences with prisoners on death row. The book was made into a feature-length film starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn, and also into an opera of the same title.

A freewill offering will benefit Sr. Helen's ministry.

For more information: 518.283.2500 ext 565 or www.lasalleinstitute.org

Sponsored by La Salle Institute of Troy, the Commission on Peace and Justice of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany & New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty

Death Penalty Talk Thursday

New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty Executive Director David Kaczynski will disucss the death penalty and its impact during a presentation at the College of St. Rose in Albany on Wednesday February 13. Mr. Kaczynski will also share his personal experiences as the brother of the Unabomber.

Time: 7:30 pm
Place: St. Joseph's Auditorium
The College of Saint Rose
432 Western Avenue
Albany, NY 12203

Action on the death penalty

Earlier this year, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a background paper ( here) on the death penalty. In case you did not know, they are against it. With a death penalty bill under discussion in the state Legislature, this is a good time to review the matter. Perhaps you can use the material in the backgrounder to draft a letter to the editor (see our previous post on ten tips for writing letters).

The New York State Catholic Conference has more information available here, where they note:

In 1995 Pope John Paul II specifically addressed the death penalty issue in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae. He said, “[T]he 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 nonexistent.”

Opposition to the death penalty

Today's Times Union reported on opposition to the death penalty:

Albany Roman Catholic Bishop Howard Hubbard denounced the death penalty Monday as a group of activists urged Senate Republicans not to vote for capital punishment.

"Human life is sacred and inherently precious," Hubbard said. "Some argue that the death penalty is needed as a means of retributive justice. While retribution is justified, revenge can never be."

The entire article is here. Please read it and contact your state legislator with a request to oppose reinstating the death penalty in New York.

Another view of the death penalty

Jeffrey Deskovic served 16 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. This week he wrote about his views on the death penalty in the Journal News.

The shootings last week involving state troopers, including a "friendly fire" fatality near Margaretville, N.Y., renewed talk of reviving the death penalty in New York. Here is another view.

When I was 16, a Peekskill High classmate was raped and murdered. The town was outraged. Police were under pressure to solve the crime. I was someone who kept to myself. Police questioned me for 7 1/2 hours in a precinct far from my home. They told me falsely that I failed a lie detector test. They said others would hurt me if I didn't confess. They said if I told them what happened, I could go home. I was alone. I was scared. My mother did not know where I was. So I told them what they wanted to hear, to make the interrogation end. Ultimately, I confessed to a crime I did not do. I was arrested for rape and murder.

Shortly after my arrest, a test showed my DNA did not match that found on the victim, Angela Correa. The Westchester district attorney, the late Carl Vergari, prosecuted me anyway, based on my confession alone. I ended up serving 16 years for crimes I did not commit. My final appeal - I was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison - to the U.S. Supreme Court ended in 1999. In death penalty cases, sentences are carried out after appeals are exhausted. My innocence was not proven until 2006, seven years after my last appeal was rejected.

The rest of article is here.