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Prior to 2020, the U.S. federal government went 17 years without administering any executions under the leadership of both Republican and Democratic presidents. Against this backdrop, the Trump administration moved to restart the practice of executions in July 2020, beginning with the lethal injection of Daniel Lewis Lee on Jul. 14, 2020.
Over the span of six months, the Department of Justice went on to execute 13 people in the span of six months — more than any other administration in the 20th or 21st centuries. Six of those executions fell during President Trump's lame duck period, another unprecedented doing.
This spate of federal executions stands in flagrant contradiction to Catholic teaching, which states that the death penalty is "inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person" (Catholic Catechism 2267).
Many Catholic bishops and other U.S. Church leaders have loudly denounced the resumption of federal executions, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has consistently echoed this clear and principled opposition, including in a recent statement: "We call on President Trump and Attorney General Barr, in recognition of God’s unmerited gift of self-giving love: stop these executions.”
The incoming presidential administration has the opportunity to take concrete action to dismantle the broken federal death penalty and seek responses to harm and crime that honor the sacred dignity of human life.
Prior to 2020, the U.S. federal government went 17 years without administering any executions under the leadership of both Republican and Democratic presidents. Against this backdrop, the Trump administration moved to restart the practice of executions in July 2020, beginning with the lethal injection of Daniel Lewis Lee on Jul. 14, 2020.
Over the span of six months, the Department of Justice went on to execute 13 people in the span of six months — more than any other administration in the 20th or 21st centuries. Six of those executions fell during President Trump's lame duck period, another unprecedented doing.
This spate of federal executions stands in flagrant contradiction to Catholic teaching, which states that the death penalty is "inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person" (Catholic Catechism 2267).
Many Catholic bishops and other U.S. Church leaders have loudly denounced the resumption of federal executions, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has consistently echoed this clear and principled opposition, including in a recent statement: "We call on President Trump and Attorney General Barr, in recognition of God’s unmerited gift of self-giving love: stop these executions.”
The incoming presidential administration has the opportunity to take concrete action to dismantle the broken federal death penalty and seek responses to harm and crime that honor the sacred dignity of human life.
Join CMN for a series of Virtual Prayer Vigils as the federal government prepares to execute Lisa Montgomery (Jan. 12), Corey Johnson (Jan. 14), and Dustin Higgs (Jan. 15).