This week Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley signed into law a bill ending the death penalty in Maryland.Governor O’Malley, a Catholic, actively campaigned for the bill that made Maryland the sixth state in six years to end the death penalty. Overall, 18 states now have abolished capital punishment. Bishop Stephen Blaire of Stockton, California, who chairs [...]
In a short debate this week the Senate considered SB 61, a bill that would require the State Auditor to examine the cost of the death penalty compared to alternative sentences. Sponsored by Senator Joe Keaveny (D-St. Louis), the original bill would have required that the state pay the costs of the financial review; [...]
This week the Maryland Senate passed SB 276, a bill to repeal the death penalty. The Maryland Senate is the first legislative body in the American South to call for repeal of the death penalty! The bill now goes to the Maryland House Judiciary Committee where it has strong support. From there it goes to [...]
The Catholic Church has long opposed the use of the death penalty because it disregards the sanctity and dignity of human life. Several Missouri lawmakers, who are active Catholics, are taking the church’s teaching seriously and are promoting bills that would limit or end the use of capital punishment. In the Senate, Senator Gina Walsh [...]
Defending religious liberty, protecting human life at all stages of development and ensuring economic justice for all are among the policy priorities adopted by the Missouri Catholic Conference (MCC) for work in 2013. Each year the MCC, the public policy agency for the Catholic bishops of Missouri, adopts priorities for special attention. To review the [...]
As the end of the year approaches, attention turns to the looming “fiscal cliff,” the agreement to eliminate the Bush-era tax cuts and to cut spending that Congress and the President reached when the Congressional budget “supercommittee” failed to reach a consensus on getting the U.S. fiscal house in order this past year. And the [...]
On election night voters across the country were not only anxiously awaiting election returns on races involving candidates, but also the outcome of various ballot measures. These measures reflected a wide spectrum of social policy issues and often resulted in close outcomes. In many of the states the Catholic conferences took a leading role in [...]
Earlier this year Missouri changed its protocol to use the drug propofol as its lethal injection drug. This week the only domestic supplier of the painkiller moved to prevent its use for executions. The company, Fresenius Kabi, has sent a letter to health care providers to inform them that the company would only sell the [...]
After 20 years on death row, Reggie Clemons had the opportunity this week to plead his case before Judge Michael Manners, a special master appointed by the Missouri Supreme Court. Clemons was convicted along with three other co-defendants in the 1991 deaths of sisters Julie and Robin Kerry who were allegedly forced to jump from [...]
While Missouri has executed two men since 2005, the state is ranked 5th nationally in the total number (68) of executions. As a faith community, it is important to let our voices be heard on the death penalty. People of Faith Against the Death Penalty (PFADP) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, interfaith organization whose mission is to [...]