April 12th - The legislation is waiting for the Governor's signature.

Supporting the repeal of the death penalty in our state is a difficult issue for many Catholics.  This is especially true when the crime committed is of a very brutal nature. However, Pope Benedict XVI and the Catholic Bishops call us to be faithful towards our Church's teaching on respecting the sanctity of all human life. Justice can be served and society can be protected from violent criminals without the death penalty. These goals can easily be met by replacing the death penalty with a lifetime sentence without the possibilty of release. Repealing the death penalty is in agreement with the pro-life teachings of the Catholic Church and is good public policy.
  
Where does the Catholic Church stand?

·      The Catholic Church opposes the death penalty except, according to the late Pope John Paul II, “in cases of absolute necessity: in other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society.  Today however, as a result of steady improvements in the organization of the penal system, such cases are very rare, if not practically non-existent.”
 

·     The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “If…non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people’s safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity with the dignity of the human person.”  This teaching is clarified by Pope John Paul II in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae, where he states, “No matter how heinous the crime, if society can protect itself without ending a human life, it should do so.”

 ·    When he was Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Pope Benedict  
      XVI explained that in modern society it would be "practically impossible" to fulfill the 
      Catechism's criteria for a death sentence.

Blessed John Paul II
 “The new evangelization calls for followers of Christ who are unconditionally pro-life: who will proclaim, celebrate and serve the Gospel of life in every situation.  A sign of hope is the increasing recognition that the dignity of human life must never be taken away… I renew the appeal I made most recently at Christmas for a consensus to end the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary.”                                                                                          Missouri, 1999

Pope Benedict XVI
Encouraged countries around the world to end the death penalty as a legal sanction at his Nov. 30, 2011  general audience. Addressing a group of pilgrims gathered in Rome for an international conference on the controversial topic, the Pope said he hopes that their deliberations “will encourage the political and legislative initiatives being promoted in a growing number of countries to eliminate the death penalty.” The Pope told them that he applauded “the substantive progress made in conforming penal law both to the human dignity of prisoners and the effective maintenance of public order.”

 

“We cannot overcome crime by simply executing criminals, nor can we restore the lives of the innocent by ending the lives of those convicted of their murders.  The death penalty offers the tragic illusion than we can defend life by taking life.”

-United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, A Good Friday Appeal to End the Death Penalty, 1999

 Some Quick Facts on the Issue:

• Innocence - Since 1973, more than 138 people have been exonerated and released from death row across the country. The problem of wrongful convictions in Connecticut first made headlines in 1973 in the Peter Reilly case. Reilly was convicted of murder and he was exonerated in 1976. Since the Reilly case at least eight people in Connecticut have been wronfgully convicted of the crimes of rape, murder, or both before being found innocent.
• Cost - Connecticut's death penalty system costs the state approximately $5 million a year in legal expenses.
• Deterrence -  The majority of studies find that the death penalty has no deterrent effect over and above the alternative of life in prison without the possibility of release.
• Victims' Families - The appeals process of the death penalty, to insure an innocent person is not wrongly convicted, with its seemingly lack of finality and continuing media exposure, inflicts emotional trauma on many family members. The current process also creates a hierarchy of victims. While every murder is a heinous crime to the victims family, very few murder cases appear worthy of the death penalty. The death penalty  divides victims into two groups, one worthy of the death penalty and the other not.  
  
  
  
 

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