{"id":2853,"date":"2012-09-14T05:58:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-14T05:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=2853"},"modified":"2025-09-28T19:37:33","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T19:37:33","slug":"philadelphia-archbishop-chaput-on-the-death-penalty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=2853","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia Archbishop Chaput on the death penalty"},"content":{"rendered":"

UPDATE<\/strong><\/span>: When you call the Board of Pardons and hit "0" the person answering the phone will ask you to put your request in writing and either mail it or fax it to 717-772-3135. When you call the Governor's office a real person will answer and take your name and where you are calling from, and put you on the list asking for clemency.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Capuchin\/Franciscan who is my favorite American prelate. Wish he were in New York. Brigid and I will definitely be making the calls as per the contacts below.<\/p>\n

\n\"ChaputWeeklyColumn-serious\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Even when a defendant is well defended, properly tried and justly found guilty, experience shows that capital punishment simply doesn\u2019t work as a deterrent. Nor does it heal or redress any wounds, because only forgiveness can do that. It does succeed though in answering violence with violence \u2014 a violence wrapped in the piety of state approval, which implicates all of us as citizens in the taking of more lives.<\/a><\/p>\n

Turning away from capital punishment does not diminish our support
\nfor the families of murder victims. They bear a terrible burden of
\ngrief, and they rightly demand justice. Real murderers deserve
\npunishment; but even properly tried and justly convicted murderers \u2014 men
\nand women who are found guilty of heinous crimes \u2014 retain their
\nGod-given dignity as human beings. When we take a murderer\u2019s life we
\nonly add to the violence in an already violent culture, and we demean
\nour own dignity in the process.<\/p>\n

Both Scripture and Catholic tradition support the legitimacy of the
\ndeath penalty under certain limited conditions. But the Church has
\nrepeatedly called us to a higher road over the past five decades. We
\ndon\u2019t need to kill people to protect society or punish the guilty. And
\nwe should never be eager to take anyone\u2019s life. As a result, except in
\nthe most extreme circumstances, capital punishment cannot be justified.
\nIn developed countries like our own, it should have no place in our
\npublic life.<\/p>\n

Last month here in Pennsylvania, execution warrants were signed for
\nfour men. A judge stayed one of the execution warrants, but the three
\nremaining warrants could potentially result in the first execution in
\nour state in 13 years. One of the cases in which appeals seem to be
\nexhausted involves Terrance Williams.<\/p>\n

In October, Williams is scheduled to die by lethal injection for the
\nmurder of Amos Norwood in 1984, a crime committed when he was 18 and a
\ncollege freshman.  Williams is indisputably guilty of the crime. He\u2019s
\nalso mentally competent. His defense attorneys argue that he was
\nrepeatedly sexually abused as a youth, including five years of abuse at
\nthe hands of the man he murdered, and that this helped motivate his
\nviolence. The state counters that all of Williams\u2019 claims \u2014 including
\nclaims of sexual abuse \u2014 have had proper judicial review and been
\nrejected.<\/p>\n

Terrance Williams deserves punishment. No one disputes that. But he
\ndoesn\u2019t need to die to satisfy justice. We should think very carefully
\nin the coming days about the kind of justice we want to witness to our
\nyoung people.<\/p>\n

Most American Catholics, like many of their fellow citizens, support
\nthe death penalty. That doesn\u2019t make it right. But it does ensure that
\nthe wrong-headed lesson of violence \u201cfixing\u201d the violent among us will
\nbe taught to another generation.<\/p>\n

As children of God, we\u2019re better than this, and we need to start acting like it. We need to end the death penalty now.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

The Archbishop strongly encourages readers to contact the
\nPennsylvania Board of Pardons, urging them to recommend commutation of
\nWilliams\u2019 sentence to life in prison. Please also contact the Office of
\nthe Governor and urge the Governor to accept a clemency recommendation
\nfrom the board, or, in its absence, to order a temporary reprieve. Use
\nthe Catholic Advocacy Network at <\/em>www.pacatholic.org<\/em><\/a> to send an email to the Board of Pardons and the Governor. Or call or write them at:<\/em><\/p>\n

Pennsylvania Board of Pardons, 333 Market Street, 15th<\/sup> Floor, Harrisburg, PA 17126; phone: 717.787.2596.<\/em><\/p>\n

        The Honorable Tom Corbett, Governor of Pennsylvania, The Capitol, Harrisburg, PA 17120; phone:         717.787.2500<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATE: When you call the Board of Pardons and hit "0" the person answering the phone will ask you to put your request in writing and either mail it or fax it to 717-772-3135. When you call the Governor's office a real person will answer and take your name and where you are calling from, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2853"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8566,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2853\/revisions\/8566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}