We have embarked on the season of Advent, waiting in eager anticipation for the birth of the Lord into our sinful world. With a heavy heart in a season of holy preparation, we are reminded of the U.S. government’s ongoing efforts to resume federal executions for the first time in 16 years. The first of…Read More
Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty released a statement July 25 criticizing the federal reinstatement of capital punishment, arguing the practice goes against the fundamental principles of conservatism. “Resumption of executions by the federal government goes against the trend we have seen in states across the nation, where executions and sentences are at historic lows.…Read More
Attorney General Bill Barr said Thursday the federal government will resume capital punishment and will move forward with plans to execute five inmates on death row for the first time in more than 15 years. The Justice Department said Barr has directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons to adopt a proposed addendum to the Federal…Read More
Louisiana’s bipartisan push to abolish the death penalty received an extra boost this week from Bishop Shelton Fabre of the diocese of Houma-Thibodaux. In an editorial in The Advocate, the state’s largest newspaper, the bishop called the practice “inconsistent with Louisiana’s values.” “Ours is one of the most religious states in the country, with more…Read More
What happens before a murder? In looking for ways to reduce death penalty cases, David R. Dow realized that a surprising number of death row inmates had similar biographies. In this talk he proposes a bold plan, one that prevents murders in the first place.
In two recent actions, the U.S. Supreme Court revealed its death penalty decisions are hardly cut and dried. In late March, the court blocked an execution because an inmate’s religious adviser wasn’t permitted to be present, which contrasted with their decision not to block an execution the previous month in a case also involving a…Read More
The Supreme Court practically foreclosed the possibility that a Texas inmate named Bobby James Moore will be executed, finding Tuesday that Moore is intellectually disabled. Moore was convicted and sentenced to death in 1980 for the shooting death of a store clerk. Though friends and counselors say Moore could not tell time and struggled with…Read More
Ten months after abandoning lethal injection, frustrated Oklahoma officials have yet to find a way to execute inmates with nitrogen gas. “I’ve got both arms tied behind my back,” said Joe Allbaugh, director of the Oklahoma Corrections Department. At issue is an inability so far to find a manufacturer of a gas delivery device willing…Read More
The latest death penalty case to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court was not about if a death-row prisoner should be executed, but how. And the newest member of the court, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, could be the deciding vote on the outcome. The Nov. 6 oral arguments considered if an alternative execution method could…Read More
The U.S. Supreme Court, no stranger to death penalty cases, is looking very narrowly at two aspects of capital punishment this term: if an inmate with dementia should be executed if he has no memory of the crime he committed three decades ago and if a death-row prisoner with a specific health problem can be…Read More