US Bishops appeal to
Administration to reverse course on Federal executions
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| Demonstrators protest the death penalty in Southern California |
Archbishop Paul Coakley, Chairman of the USCCB’s Committee
on Domestic Justice and Human Development, calls on the US Administration to
reverse course on presiding over Federal executions for the first time in 17
years.
By Vatican News
The US Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up the case
of federal death row prisoners who had challenged the government’s lethal
injection protocol, paving the way for the Trump Administration to carry out
the first executions at the federal level in nearly two decades.
The high court’s denial means that the government can
proceed with four executions starting this month.
Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City released a
statement reiterating the call made last July for the Administration to
reconsider its decision and reverse course.
The Chairman of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’
Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development's statement on Tuesday
decries the US Attorney General’s decision to set new federal execution dates
for four federal death row inmates beginning July 13.
“As articulated to the Supreme Court in another case earlier
this year,” Archbishop Coakley states, “the bishops have been calling for an
end to the death penalty for decades.”
Papal appeals
He notes that Pope St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and
Pope Francis have all called for an end to the death penalty around the
world.
“As Pope Francis articulated through the Catechism of the
Catholic Church, the death penalty is unacceptable as an affront to the Gospel
and to respect for human life,” he says.
The Archbishop also recalls that at their June 2019 meeting,
the Catholic Bishops of the United States voted overwhelmingly in affirmation
of this position.
“Two of my brother bishops and I wrote. . . last year: ‘To
oppose the death penalty is not to be “soft on crime.” Rather, it is to be
strong on the dignity of life.’ To this end, I implore Attorney General Barr
and President Trump to abandon this path to preside over the first federal
executions in 17 years,” he concludes.
The high court’s denial means that the government can
proceed with four executions starting next month. Daniel Lee is scheduled to be
executed on July 13; Wesley Purkey and Daniel Honken on July 15 and July 17;
and Keith Nelson on August 28.
The men, who are currently housed in the high-security
federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, have been on death row between 16 and
22 years. The US government plans to use a single dose of pentobarbital to put
the inmates to death.
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