We know that every person is a child of God.
We know that we are called to love our enemies.
We know that all life is reverenced because every person has sacred dignity.
This is what our faith increasingly teaches even in the difficult places of our society.
Knowing and living these core beliefs, are we surprised that, among the many life issues, our faith now clearly sees the penalty of death as wholly inconsistent with our faith?
Fifteen years ago, the Commonwealth of Kentucky, in our name, executed Marco Allen Chapman on Nov. 21, 2008. His crime was brutal. The harm caused his victims is unimaginable in its tragedy, yet our faith teaches us that killing him is not an act of our faith.
Over several decades, church doctrine on matters of irrevocable decisions of life and death has developed in light of the church’s growing knowledge and its continued assessment of judicial injustice and the ready availability of alternatives that protect public safety.
St. John Paul II’s 1995 encyclical “Evangelium Vitae” proclaimed that the use of capital punishment should be “very rare, if not practically non-existent.” Then in 1998 he called for its abolition.
Pope Benedict XVI, in 2011, confirmed this teaching, declaring, “No justice without life.” Pope Benedict expressed hope that the death penalty would be eliminated “to continue the substantive progress made in conforming penal law both to the human dignity of prisoners and the effective maintenance of public order.”
In 2018, Pope Francis updated the Catechism of the Catholic Church, terming the death penalty “inadmissible.”
The teachings of the popes, especially encyclicals, help us see current activity in a new light.
In his 2020 encyclical, “Fratelli Tutti,” Pope Francis sees that the “firm rejection of the death penalty shows to what extent it is possible to recognize the inalienable dignity of every human being and to accept that he or she has a place in this universe.”
Pope Francis noted in 2020 that judicial error was a reason to oppose the death penalty. DNA has exonerated many from death rows across our nation.
Kentucky is no stranger to judicial errors in capital cases. Two of every three sentences of death in our state have subsequently been reversed. An astonishing error rate.
Would we allow our best friend to fly an airline that had its planes return to the runway two-thirds of the time because of a serious malfunction in the aircraft? Would we buy meat at a market that sold a rancid product two-thirds of the time?
The way the death penalty is administered in Kentucky is hopelessly infected with injustice. Some might say that the error-prone administration of the death penalty in Kentucky can be rectified with reforms.
In 2011, a distinguished panel of Kentucky leaders, including two former Kentucky Supreme Court Justices who had affirmed death sentences, comprehensively examined all aspects of the way the death penalty is being conducted in our state. In a 400-plus-page audit, the Kentucky leaders found our system infected with over 90 deadly deficiencies. Kentucky policymakers have refused to implement necessary remedies.
Executions are not a theoretical issue in Kentucky. Three people have been executed since 1976. In 2023 26 people are on Kentucky’s death row. Some are near the end of their judicial litigation remedies as their executions loom.
Today, let us resolve in our hearts and souls to know and proclaim that the penalty of death is wholly incompatible with our reverence for all life and work for its abolition, as our popes have encouraged us.
In the words of Pope Francis, “All Christians and people of good will are today called to work not only for the abolition of the death penalty, legal or illegal, in all its forms, but also to work for the improvement of prison conditions out of respect for the human dignity of persons deprived of their freedom.”
Ed Monahan is a member of The Record’s editorial board, a former director of the Catholic Conference of Kentucky, a career public defender representing capital clients and previously served as the Kentucky Public Advocate for the statewide public defender program.
