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Related Resources on the Death Penalty
Study:
Discover Catholic teaching on the death penalty:
U.S. Bishops' national statements on the death penalty
Nearly 150 state Catholic conference and individual bishops' statements on the death penalty.
Bishops' statement, Responsibility, Rehabilitation, and Restoration: A Catholic Perspective on Crime and Criminal Justice.
Learn about the death penalty:
The Death Penalty in America: Current Controversies. Hugo Adam Bedau, Ed. Oxford University Press, New York, 1997
The Death Penalty: An Historical and Theological Survey. James J. Megivern. Paulist Press, Mahwah, New Jersey, 1997.
The Death Penalty Information Center, 1320 18th St., NW, 5th Floor, Washington, DC 20036, 202-293-6970,
Teach:
The Death Penalty Information Center now provides curricula for learning about the death penalty. Appropriate for high school students and young adults, but adaptable for parish use, too.
Engage your parish community in a discussion on the death penalty. Be sure to talk about the practical arguments against it: costs, race, poverty, arbitrariness. Use the video and book Dead Man Walking.
Commit to action:
Sign a "Declaration of Life" a legal document stating that if you are murdered, you do not want your perpetrator to be sentenced to death.
For more information, contact:
Sr. Camille D'Arienzo, RSM
Cherish Life Circle, Convent of Mercy
273 Willoughby Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11205-1487 718-622-5750.
Ask local parishes and other churches to toll church bells on the day of an execution. Contact: For Whom the Bells Toll, c/o Dorothy Briggs, O.P., PO Box 2736, Kalamazoo, MI 49003-2736
Legislative Action
Write:
A parish/diocesan moratorium statement. In 1997, the American Bar Association called for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty until the racial and income discrepancies could be studied to see if it was being applied fairly. Since that time, a number of organizations have been urging faith groups and others to draft moratorium statements.
Lobby your state legislators:
Ask your members of Congress to support the Innocence Protection Act. Call the Capitol switchboard in Washington D.C. at 202-224-3121.
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