Column Zeal to end death penalty growing
By ROBERT F. DRINAN
The death of the death penalty may
occur in Rome July 9. On that Sunday the pope will visit a prison in Rome and,
as a part of the Jubilee Year, call for a moratorium on the death penalty and
issue a condemnation of inhumane prison conditions.
The Jubilee Day for the Imprisoned will be replicated
throughout the world with the participation of bishops and prison
chaplains.
Pope John Paul II has also strengthened the condemnation of the
death penalty by removing from the words in Section 2266 of the Catholic
Catechism the statement that the death penalty could be imposed in cases
of extreme gravity. The pope calls executions cruel and
unnecessary.
In the United States activities against the death penalty by
Catholics at every level are intense. In Pennsylvania, Cardinal Anthony
Bevilacqua, speaking for all the bishops of his state, testified on behalf of a
state Senate resolution calling for a moratorium on the death penalty.
Republican Gov. Tom Ridge, who has signed almost 200 death warrants in his five
years in office, opposes the bill. The testimony of Bevilacqua reinforces a
resolution of the Philadelphia City Council that called for a moratorium on
executions in Pennsylvania by a tally of 12-4.
In a statement, the three Catholic bishops of the state of
Washington conceded, Some Catholics may not be aware of how the
churchs teaching about capital punishment has developed. The two
Catholic bishops of North Carolina issued a similar statement on Good Friday.
In a dramatic confrontation, the Catholic bishops of Texas have asked Gov.
George W. Bush to suspend executions. The bishops pointed out that there are
463 persons sentenced to death in Texas and that there are strong claims
that some of them have not had full access to the courts.
Death penalty opponents have stressed not only the basic wrongness
of capital punishment, but have pointed out that while 610 people have been
executed throughout the nation since 1976, during that same period 85 persons
have been released from death row. This phenomenon may well mean that a
significant number of convicts who have not committed murder are executed.
Other anti-death penalty actions are gaining momentum. In Oregon,
the organizers of a campaign to hold a referendum on the death penalty on the
November ballot feel confident that they will have the necessary 89,000
signatures before the July 7 deadline. Philippine President Joseph Estrada, in
response to a request by the countrys Catholic bishops, has imposed a
moratorium on all executions until January 2001. The Moratorium 2000 movement
was organized with the hope that 1 million signatures will be on a petition to
be delivered by Sr. Helen Prejean to the United Nations on Human Rights Day,
Dec. 10.
A new study on the death penalty by the National Jewish/Catholic
Consultation urges its abolition. The joint document results from an extensive
study of the collective wisdom of Judaism and Catholicism. Cardinal William
Keeler released the document, expressing the hope that it will be
studied, prayed over and used on occasion for dialogue leading toward joint
interreligious witness to society as a whole.
The bad news is that apparently the Clinton White House will not
allow the death penalty to become an issue in the campaign. This, despite the
fact that Attorney General Janet Reno said Jan. 20, I have inquired for
most of my adult life about studies that might show that the death penalty is a
deterrent. And I have not seen any research that would substantiate that
point.
Reno, a life-long prosecutor, has conceded that there is no
evidence for the argument based on deterrence. Can we conclude therefore that
the myth of deterrence is a front that serves as a cover for the primal urge
for revenge?
More information on the amazing development in the way Catholics
look on the death penalty is covered in the news notes of Catholics Against
Capital Punishment on their Web site (http://www.igc.org/cacp).
The popes new pronouncements to come July 9 may not receive
significant world attention. But they will reinforce and supplement his own
striking words in his letter, The Gospel of Life, in which he
affirmed, Not even the murderer loses his personal dignity.
Jesuit Fr. Robert Drinan is a professor at Georgetown
University Law Center.
National Catholic Reporter, June 16,
2000
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