Bishops Renew Fight Against Death Penalty

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced a renewed campaign against the death penalty Monday, launching an education program and expanding its advocacy efforts in Congress and state legislatures.

“We cannot teach that killing is wrong by killing,” Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, archbishop of Washington, said at the National Press Club. “We cannot defend life by taking life.”

McCarrick said that while the bishops’ conference has opposed the death penalty for 25 years, the new efforts will bring greater “urgency and unity, increased energy and advocacy, and a renewed call to our people” to continue the fight to end the death penalty.

A survey of 1,785 Roman Catholic adults of all demographics shows a general trend away from support of the death penalty, said pollster John Zogby.

“In past surveys, Catholic support for the death penalty was as high as 68%,” Zogby said. “In our November survey, we found that less than half of the Catholic adults in our poll now support the use of the death penalty.”

The survey also found that the more often Catholics attended Mass, the less likely they were to support the death penalty; that younger Catholics (18 to 28 years old) were less likely to support capital punishment; and that a third of Catholics who once supported the death penalty now opposed it. The poll has a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points.

The bishops’ announcement sought to emphasize the church’s commitment to support victims of violence and their families as a part of the campaign.

Bud Welch, whose daughter, Julie Marie, was killed in the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, said that at first he wanted vengeance. He was angry with God. But he started thinking about what his daughter would have wanted.

Then he met the father of convicted bomber Timothy J. McVeigh, who was executed in 2001. Welch called McVeigh’s father “another victim” of the bombing.

“There was nothing about that process that brought me any peace or relief,” Welch said of McVeigh’s execution. “More violence is not what Julie would have wanted. More violence will not bring Julie back.”

McCarrick said that the campaign was also about providing justice to individuals who were wrongly convicted and sentenced to death.

Kirk Bloodsworth, who in 1993 was the first person to have a capital crime overturned because of post-conviction DNA testing, spoke of the injustice he had faced.

“I spent eight years, 11 months and 19 days behind bars before DNA testing proved my innocence,” said Bloodsworth, who was convicted in Maryland in 1985 of murder, sexual assault and rape in the death of a 9-year-old girl.

His experience, he said, exemplifies problems in the death penalty system. “If it could happen to me, it could happen to anybody.”

There are 640 inmates on death row in California, one of 38 states that have a death penalty, according to the California Department of Corrections.

This year, 12 executions -- including one in California -- have taken place across the country, the Death Penalty Information Center said.

The bishops announced their campaign at the beginning of Holy Week, which commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. On Friday -- Good Friday for Christians -- California activists will observe a statewide day of action against the death penalty.

Groups like California Catholic Conference of Bishops, Death Penalty Focus and California People of Faith Working Against the Death Penalty will spend the day distributing leaflets at churches, asking religious leaders to speak about the death penalty and collecting signatures for the California moratorium campaign, which calls for a “timeout” on executions.

The national bishops’ Catholic Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty aims to spread awareness through parishes, schools, universities and seminaries; through the group’s website, www.ccedp.org; and through outreach efforts to publishers of materials and textbooks for Catholic schools and education programs.

The national campaign also will try to encourage passage of federal and state anti-death penalty legislation.