Some Catholic governors are embracing the use of capital punishment as part of their political platforms despite the Catholic Church's opposition to the practice. Another Catholic governor in a southern state recently called for an end to the practice.
However, despite the support
The commutation Dec. 13 of all condemned prisoners on Oregon's death row was one key in the Death Penalty Information Center's 2022 report on capital punishment in the United States.
Counterbalancing Oregon's move was Oklahoma's effort to execute 25 death-row inmates in a
John Ramirez, a Texas inmate who won a legal battle with the Supreme Court to have his pastor pray aloud over him and place his hands on him in the execution chamber, was executed by lethal injection Oct. 5.
Ramirez, 38, was given
In a video to promote his monthly prayer intention, Pope Francis on Wednesday called for prayer and action to end capital punishment in nations across the world, including the United States, where more than 2,400 incarcerated men and women are held on
In a new essay for Our Sunday Visitor, Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, invites the faithful to join Pope Francis in his request to pray throughout
The death penalty is an affront to human dignity that offers no solace to victims and denies the possibility for conversion of those who commit serious crimes, Pope Francis said.
The growing calls around the world for an end to capital punishment are
Catholic leaders expressed disappointment with a June 6 ruling by a federal judge in Oklahoma calling the state's three-drug lethal injection method constitutional.
The ruling enables the state to move ahead with executions for more than two dozen death-row inmates who were plaintiffs
WASHINGTON (CNS) — In a 6-3 ruling May 23, the Supreme Court said two Arizona death-row inmates could not present new evidence of ineffective counsel they said they received in state trials during their federal appeals. The inmates have argued that their
Catholic leaders were thankful that death-row inmate Melissa Lucio was granted a last-minute stay of execution April 25, but they also said her sentence shows a failure in the use of capital punishment in this country and stressed that they would continue
Marking Good Friday, the most solemn day in the church calendar, Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory of Washington venerated the cross of Jesus and urged the faithful to "consider carefully the impact that capital punishment has on us as a society."
"On this day,