Capitol Punishment

Execution bed in a prison

‘Dead Man Walking’ at 30: The Fight Continues 

“Grace comes and wakes us up,” says Sister Helen Prejean, who has dedicated her life to fighting capital punishment in the United States. “It’s what you do with it when it comes that counts.” 
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Indianapolis Archbishop Charles C. Thompson offers an opening prayer at a rally Nov. 17, 2024, on the grounds of the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis to call on Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb to halt the execution of Joseph Corcoran scheduled for Dec. 18. It would be the first execution in the state in more than a decade. The rally was sponsored by the Indiana Abolition Coalition. Activists pushing President Joe Biden to commute existing federal death sentences during his final months in office hope that if he does that, his action could be "the beginning of the end" of the death penalty at the federal and state levels. (OSV News photo/Sean Gallagher, The Criterion)

Report examines ‘persistent racial disparities’ in federal death penalty use

A new report by the Death Penalty Information Center examined what it called persistent racial disparities in federal death penalty prosecutions.
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Cathy Harmon-Christian, the executive director of "Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty," holds a photo of Willie James Pye outside of the Georgia Diagnostic Prison in Jackson March 20, 2024. (OSV News photo/Jayla Whitfield-Anderson, Reuters)

Pope praises Catholic group that advocates for abolition of death penalty

Catholic Mobilizing Network, a group that advocates for the abolition of capital punishment in line with Catholic teaching, marked the World Day Against the Death Penalty Oct. 10 in an event at the Holy See's apostolic nunciature in Washington.
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Protesters opposed to the death penalty demonstrate outside a Georgia state prison for men in Jackson in this 2008 file photo. Called the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison, it holds the state's execution chamber. (OSV News photo/Tami Chappell, Reuters)

Texas executes death-row inmate despite allegations of false testimony at trial

Ivan Cantu was executed Feb. 28 by the state of Texas despite claims that the Texan's 2001 conviction for killing James Mosqueda and Amy Kitchen, his cousin and his cousin's fiancee, was based on false testimony.
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A group of demonstrators rally against the death penalty outside the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington Oct. 13, 2021. (CNS photo/Jonathan Ernst, Reuters)

Advocates displeased with U.S. vote against global death penalty ban

When the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution Dec. 15 to establish a worldwide "moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty," the United States continued its practice of voting against it.
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The Death Penalty and the Myth of Closure

Many argue the death penalty can help survivors move on with their lives. However, this counselor writes that true healing can happen only when we learn to "walk with the pain."
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