A Pax Christi USA statement
September 26, 2024 – Pax Christi USA, the national Catholic peace movement, is horrified that, with this evening’s execution of Alan Miller in Alabama, the US will have reached 1,600 state-sanctioned murders since the death penalty was re–instated in 1977.
Pax Christi USA has always opposed the death penalty in all cases and without reservation. (Use this link to read our official statement from 2000.) Our position is based on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and on the consistent ethic of life which teaches that life is sacred in all of its stages. In the Gospels we see a nonviolent Jesus who taught and exemplified forgiveness, mercy, compassion, and justice that was restorative and healing, always seeking to connect and unify rather than to condemn. We believe that even those who have committed the most heinous crimes are still beloved in the eyes of our Creator God who embraces us all as sons and daughters.
We echo the words of St. John Paul II in 1999 in St. Louis, MO: “I renew the appeal… for a consensus to end the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary.” Pope Francis has continued this urging to abolish the death penalty: “Today […] there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes. In addition, a new understanding has emerged of the significance of penal sanctions imposed by the state. Lastly, more effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the due protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption. Consequently, the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that ‘the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,’ and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide.”
We are deeply grieved by the September 24 execution of Marcellus Khaliifah Williams in Missouri. All state-sanctioned executions are immoral, but the death of Mr. Williams is particularly egregious: Due to DNA analysis and other factors, he was almost certainly innocent of the crime for which he had been condemned. His conviction, however, was allowed to stand since neither the governor of Missouri nor the US Supreme Court chose to intervene and stop the gruesome process.
Once again, the inherently flawed prison industrial complex has revealed its persistent bias against impoverished people and people of color, plus its intractable resistance to admit its mistakes. (Since 1973, at least 200 people sentenced to death have been exonerated.)
Eight men (from Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Missouri) have been or are expected to be executed during this pre-election season (September 20 and October 17), a shocking indication that our society has been seduced by violence, and that state politicians believe they must prove that they are “tough on crime” in order to win office.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, more than 2,164 people were on death row as of July 2024. Additionally, executions in the US increased 33 percent in 2023 from 2022, a gross perversity that indicates how much work needs to be done to change policies and the judicial system in order to find more humane means of addressing serious crimes.
The death penalty does nothing to heal, repair, or address the root causes of violence – it only serves to hurt more people and to continue cycles of trauma. As the US Catholic bishops have affirmed: “We do not believe more deaths are the response to the question [of violent crimes].”
Pax Christi USA is grateful for our many members who have been actively involved in trying to end the death penalty in their states, and for the work of the Catholic Mobilizing Network, Death Penalty Action, the Innocence Project, Journey of Hope, and all the other organizations committed to stopping state executions. We pray for them, for the people on death row, and for all victims of violent crimes and their loved ones. We join with countless other individuals and organizations working to end the death penalty.
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Use this link to find the Pax Christi USA prayer card on the abolition of the death penalty, written by Pax Christi USA 1996 Teacher of Peace Sr. Helen Prejean, CSJ.