President Joe Biden is the first sitting U.S. president to publicly oppose capital punishment and to have campaigned on an anti-death penalty platform. As the Biden administration approaches the 100-day mark, Catholics are calling on the president to uphold the Church's anti-death penalty teachings.
There are a few avenues toward abolition at the president's disposal, the first being for him to declare an official moratorium on all executions at the federal level. President Biden also has the power to commute the sentences of all those currently on the federal death row - 49 people at present - and to advocate with Congress and the states to end the death penalty in law.
Thousands of Catholics have signed a petition urging the Biden administration to take concrete action to dismantle the federal death penalty and seek responses to harm and crime that honor the sacred dignity of human life. Join them by signing the petition here!