Catholic organizations have called a new Florida law that ends the unanimous jury requirement in death penalty sentencing “stunning” and a “thinly veiled attack on human life,” while the state’s governor — a potential 2024 presidential contender — argues the law allows proper justice to be served.
Immediately after the Oklahoma attorney general asked a state appeals court to vacate the sentence of Richard Glossip, a prisoner who had been on death row for nearly 25 years, Sister Helen Prejean tweeted the news.
Critics of the death penalty denounced the decision June 15 by Attorney General William Barr to set execution dates for four federal prisoners on death row.
Catholic advocates against the death penalty spoke out against Missouri’s May 19 execution of a death-row inmate, Walter Barton, whose death by lethal injection was the first execution to happen during the pandemic.
One decade ago the Catholic Church still allowed for the death penalty under certain conditions, and 35 states across the country permitted the practice. As the Catholic Mobilizing Network (CMN) celebrates their 10-year anniversary this week, that number is down to 29 states.
