I am trying to recall when I first began to think about whether capital punishment is or is not moral. I don’t recall reflecting on that question when I was in grammar school, but perhaps at Jesuit high school, Xavier, the question began to enter my mind. During my years as a student in the seminary and as a young priest, I had accepted the view that capital punishment was immoral. When Pope St. John Paul II taught that capital punishment was often immoral, I felt secure in thinking capital punishment was immoral. Pope Francis’ claim that it was always immoral settled the question for me. I recently read an essay entitled “Witness: Sin and Redemption in America’s Death Chambers” by Elizabeth Bruenig in the magazine The Atlantic (July 2025).
When I see the word “Redemption” in a secular magazine, I immediately wonder if it is due to the presence of the Holy Spirit. Early in her essay, Bruenig writes the following:
“I had been trying to compose my thoughts about the death penalty for a while, distilling them into scraps and stubs of writing, but the only certainty I had going into the Indiana death chamber in December 2020 was the simple sense that it’s generally wrong to kill people, even bad people. What I witnessed on this occasion and the ones that came after has not changed my conviction that capital punishment must end. But in sometimes unexpected ways, it has changed my understanding of why” (p. 28).
Though I am still opposed to capital punishment, Bruenig’s essay helped me understand why some people are in favor of it. Bruenig goes into detail in describing some of the crimes that people on death row have committed. She pulls no punches. I found reading details about what crimes some on death row have committed very difficult to read. Very difficult reading!
An excellent writer, Bruenig invites readers into a frightening world. While reading Bruenig’s descriptions, I thought of my experience reading Viktor Frankl’s excellent book “Man’s Search for Meaning.” In one section of the book, Frankl goes into great detail, indicating what the Nazis in the concentration camps did to Jewish people. Every time I read that section of Frankl’s book, I wonder how human beings could treat other human beings the way the Nazi guards treated the Jewish people. Reading the descriptions of how some people murdered others, I wondered how anyone could be so cruel. I imagined the feelings of the relatives and friends of the person murdered and how their emotions may have tempted them to want the person on death row not only killed but tortured before death, and killed in the most painful way possible.
After noting that by 1860, no Northern state executed criminals for any crimes other than murder and treason, Bruenig writes the following:
“Conditions in the South were different. In the mid-19th century, one could be executed in Louisiana for a variety of reasons that might spread discontent among free or enslaved black people: making a speech, displaying a sign, printing and distributing materials, even having a private conversation. … American capital punishment took on an undeniably racist character” (p. 29).
Commenting on contemporary arguments against capital punishment, Bruenig writes the following:
“These contemporary arguments involve factual observations about the death penalty as practiced — namely that innocent people may be executed, that sentencing is arbitrary, that the handing-down of death sentences is heavily influenced by racism, and that the use of capital punishment is marked by horrific mishaps” (p. 30).
In a paragraph near the end of her essay, Bruenig suggests that the movement opposing the death penalty seems to be gaining momentum. She writes the following:
“Today, 27 states have abolished the death penalty or have halted execution by executive action. According to the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Educational Fund, as of last summer, 2,213 people resided on death row in America, compared with 3,682 in 2000. In each year during the last decade, fewer than 50 death sentences have been handed down by American courts. The Justice Department called a moratorium on federal executions after Joe Biden took office in 2021, and before leaving office, Biden commuted the death sentences of 37 of the 40 men awaiting executions in federal prisons” (p.35).
Quoting a scholar on the death penalty, Bruenig suggests that the momentum against the death penalty is substantial. I suggest that Bruenig’s excellent, challenging essay is a step in the right direction.
Because Bruenig does not shield readers from some of the gory details surrounding the crimes and executions, I found reading the essay challenging, but I am glad I read it and appreciate Bruenig for writing it. I plan to spread the word at St. John’s University, especially to friends who teach either ethics or moral theology.
Father Lauder is a philosophy professor at St. John’s University, Jamaica. His new book, “The Cosmic Love Story: God and Us,” is available on Amazon.com and at Barnes & Noble.