RELIGIOUS VIEWS: Over 150 Catholic Theologians Call for Repeal of the Death Penalty

In response to the exe­cu­tions of Troy Davis and Lawrence Brewer on September 21, over 150 Catholic the­olo­gians have signed a state­ment call­ing for the abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty in United States. The the­olo­gians stat­ed: “[W]e oppose the death penal­ty, whether a per­son on death row is guilty or inno­cent, on both the­o­log­i­cal and prac­ti­cal grounds. While we espe­cial­ly deplore and lament the killing of Troy Davis, we also decry the death sen­tences of the more than 3,200 inmates on death row and the 1,268 exe­cu­tions since the death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed by the Supreme Court in 1976. We urge our nation to abol­ish cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, and we also implore our church­es to work unwa­ver­ing­ly to end it as well as all oth­er threats to human life and dig­ni­ty.” The state­ment cit­ed for­mer Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, who wrote, ​“The death penal­ty is imposed not only in a freak­ish and dis­crim­i­na­to­ry man­ner, but also in some cas­es upon defen­dants who are inno­cent.” The the­olo­gians also point­ed to stud­ies show­ing racial and eco­nom­ic bias in the death penal­ty sys­tem and to past state­ments from the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops and the Pope. Read full statement below.

A Catholic Call to Abolish the Death Penalty

There were two state-sanc­tioned exe­cu­tions in the United States on September 21, 2011. In Georgia, Troy Anthony Davis, an African American man, was put to death for the 1989 mur­der of Savannah police offi­cer Mark MacPhail. In Texas, Lawrence Brewer, a white suprema­cist, was exe­cut­ed for his par­tic­i­pa­tion in the racist hate crime drag­ging mur­der of James Byrd in Jasper in 1998. As the­olo­gians, schol­ars, and social jus­tice advo­cates who par­tic­i­pate in the pub­lic dis­cus­sion of Catholic the­ol­o­gy, we protest the state-sanc­tioned killings of both of these men, and we call for the abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty in the US.

Davis’ exe­cu­tion is par­tic­u­lar­ly trou­bling for it shines a stark light upon many long­stand­ing con­cerns about cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the US. We mourn the death of Officer MacPhail and express our deep­est sym­pa­thies to his fam­i­ly for their trag­ic loss. However, we believe that a grave mis­car­riage of jus­tice took place with Davis’ exe­cu­tion. As many legal experts have point­ed out, includ­ing for­mer FBI Director and fed­er­al judge and pros­e­cu­tor William S. Sessions, seri­ous doubt remains about Davis’ guilt. Until his last breath he main­tained his inno­cence. The fail­ure of the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, a Federal Appeals Judge, the Georgia Supreme Court, and the U.S. Supreme Court to grant Davis a new tri­al reveals a deeply flawed jus­tice sys­tem. We there­fore call upon law­mak­ers and President Obama to imme­di­ate­ly repeal the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, which cre­at­ed the legal con­di­tions for exe­cut­ing a man whose guilt was not estab­lished beyond rea­son­able doubt.

Even those who do not share our faith con­vic­tions ought to rec­og­nize, as Justice William J. Brennan put it, ​“the death penal­ty is imposed not only in a freak­ish and dis­crim­i­na­to­ry man­ner, but also in some cas­es upon defen­dants who are inno­cent.” The hor­rif­ic lega­cy of lynch­ing in the US casts its evil shad­ow over cur­rent appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty. Studies have shown that black defen­dants are more like­ly to receive the death penal­ty. In many states with cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, defen­dants are from 3 to 5 times more like­ly to be exe­cut­ed if their vic­tim was white. In states that retain the death penal­ty, 98 per­cent of dis­trict attor­neys are white and only 1 per­cent are black. Execution is also irrev­o­ca­ble, and inno­cent peo­ple have like­ly been vic­tims of it. Since 1973, 138 per­sons have been exon­er­at­ed from death row, most of whom were peo­ple of col­or and eco­nom­i­cal­ly poor.

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops stat­ed that ​“the sanc­tion of death, when it is not nec­es­sary to pro­tect soci­ety, vio­lates respect for human life and dignity…Its appli­ca­tion is deeply flawed and can be irre­versibly wrong, is prone to errors, and is biased by fac­tors such as race, the qual­i­ty of legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion, and where the crime was com­mit­ted. We have oth­er ways to pun­ish crim­i­nals and pro­tect soci­ety.” In ear­li­er eras, Roman Catholic tra­di­tion acknowl­edged the neces­si­ty of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, in rare cas­es, to pro­tect cit­i­zens from threats to the com­mon good. In recent times, with more secure prison facil­i­ties that give us the means to offer such pro­tec­tion with­out exe­cu­tions, our church lead­ers have affirmed the need to erad­i­cate the death penal­ty.

There are, more­over, the­o­log­i­cal rea­sons for this stance, and here we speak espe­cial­ly to our sis­ters and broth­ers in faith. In call­ing for the abo­li­tion of the ​“cru­el and unnec­es­sary” death penal­ty, Blessed Pope John Paul II argued that “[t]he new evan­ge­liza­tion calls for fol­low­ers of Christ who are uncon­di­tion­al­ly pro-life: who will pro­claim, cel­e­brate, and serve the Gospel of life in every sit­u­a­tion. 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.” Our the­o­log­i­cal tra­di­tion recalls that our Lord Jesus Christ was unjust­ly and bru­tal­ly nailed to a cross to die. The great 20^th cen­tu­ry the­olo­gian Karl Barth put the mat­ter this way: ​“Now that Jesus Christ has been nailed to the cross for the sins of the world, how can we still use the thought of expi­a­tion to estab­lish the death penal­ty?” The Eucharistic cel­e­bra­tion calls Catholics to remem­ber all cru­ci­fied peo­ple, includ­ing the lega­cy of lynch­ing, in light of the life, min­istry, death, and res­ur­rec­tion of Jesus Christ. His Gospel mes­sage of for­give­ness and love of ene­mies presents a dif­fi­cult chal­lenge, espe­cial­ly to those who have lost loved ones at the hands of a mur­der­er. Yet, the Gospel teach­es us how to become ful­ly human: love, not hatred and revenge, lib­er­ates us. We need to for­give and love both in fideli­ty to the Gospel and for our own well-being. The expe­ri­ence of groups like Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights, who advo­cate against the death penal­ty, attests to this.

Therefore, in con­cert with our recent popes and bish­ops, we oppose the death penal­ty, whether a per­son on death row is guilty or inno­cent, on both the­o­log­i­cal and prac­ti­cal grounds. While we espe­cial­ly deplore and lament the killing of Troy Davis, we also decry the death sen­tences of the more than 3,200 inmates on death row and the 1,268 exe­cu­tions since the death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed by the Supreme Court in 1976. We urge our nation to abol­ish cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, and we also implore our church­es to work unwa­ver­ing­ly to end it as well as all oth­er threats to human life and dignity.

(J. McElwee, ​“Over 150 the­olo­gians call for abo­li­tion of death penal­ty,” National Catholic Reporter, September 27, 2011; T. Winright, ​“A Catholic Call to Abolish the Death Penalty,” September 27, 2011). See Religion and New Voices.