death penalty

Catholic activists pushing politicians to turn tide against the death penalty

Soon, probably next week, Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy  will sign into a law a bill that abolishes the death penalty in his state. When he does, Connecticut will be the fifth state to enact such legislation in as many years — and the third with a governor who was raised Roman Catholic. As a younger man, Malloy supported the death penalty. …

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Rick Santorum, cafeteria Catholic?

He has seven children, attends a Latin Mass and has driven issues of reproductive rights back into the center of American politics. In 2002, he traveled to Rome to express his support for the founder of the ultra-conservative Catholic lay movement called Opus Dei. With these boxes on his religious resume checked, Rick Santorum has convinced Americans, even those who disagree …

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Justice Scalia speaks for himself on death penalty, not the Catholic Church

That Justice Antonin Scalia believes in execution as a moral form of punishment is a well-known fact. That he is an observant, traditional Roman Catholic is, similarly, well-known. That he appears to believe his church supports the death penalty and that he’s willing to stake his job on that conviction is nothing short of astonishing. But there it is: “If I thought …

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Jared Loughner Trial Could Expand Support for the Death Penalty

The leering mug shot, the six dead, including a child—Jared Loughner may be the most unsympathetic defendant since Timothy McVeigh. And death penalty opponents worry his trial could spike support for execution. Death penalty opponents in the United States have become optimistic of late, even cheerful. Support for capital punishment has declined to 64 percent, according to Gallup, the lowest …

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