Say no to death

By Tony Staley
Compass Editor

There was good news about the death penalty last year in the United States. Specifically, capital punishment is being used less and public support is dropping.

While Wisconsin voters in November approved an advisory referendum to restore the death penalty by a 55%-45% margin, support for the measure eroded considerably leading up to the election. As John Huebscher, executive director of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference put it, "The more we talk about the death penalty, the less we like it."

A 2006 Gallup Poll found that while two-thirds of Americans support the death penalty, by a 48% to 47% margin they prefer life without parole over capital punishment.

Contrast that to the 2005 Gallup Poll where a 56% to 39% margin preferred the death penalty to life without parole.

The change among Catholics is even more dramatic. A 2005 Zogby International poll conducted for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops found 48% favor capital punishment and 47% oppose it. That's quite a change from 1994, when about 80% of both Catholics and Americans in general supported the death penalty.

Frank McNeirney, co-founder of Catholics Against Capital Punishment, credits Pope John Paul II's strong stance against the death penalty as one factor in the change in Catholic attitudes.

When Pope John Paul visited St. Louis in 1999, McNeirney told Catholic News Service, he called capital punishment "both cruel and unnecessary" and said "modern society has the means of protecting itself without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform."

Other developments may further sway attitudes against the death penalty. For example, on Dec. 15: a California federal judge ruled that the state's lethal injection procedure violated the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment; and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush suspended state executions two days after an execution failed to work within 15 minutes, leading to the use of a second lethal injection that extended the execution to 34 minutes.

Certainly the heckling and harassment of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein at his execution should further turn public opinion against capital punishment.

A look at the roster of countries that allow the death penalty is another reminder that we do not want to be a member of this club. These countries include Belarus, China, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Mongolia, the Palestinian Authority, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Yemen.

Our last two popes, the U.S. Bishops and the catechism make it clear that capital punishment is not morally acceptable. Americans, but especially Catholics, need to work for its abolition.