Federal Government to Restart Executions

The U.S. Department of Justice has scheduled three executions to take place over a five-day span beginning on July 13. A fourth has been scheduled for the end of August.

The four men scheduled to be executed are: Daniel Lee on July 13; Wesley Purkey on July 15; Dustin Honken on July 17; and Keith Nelson on Aug. 28.

In  response to this news and the U.S. Supreme Court declining to hear the appeals of four federal death row inmates, Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, called on the Administration to reverse course: "Two of my brother bishops and I  wrote last year: 'To oppose the death penalty is not to be "soft on crime." Rather, it is to be strong on the dignity of life.' To this end, I implore Attorney General Barr and President Trump to abandon this path to preside over the first federal executions in 17 years." 

Pope St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis have all called for an end to the death penalty around the world. As Pope Francis articulated through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the death penalty is unacceptable as an affront to the Gospel and to respect for human life. The U.S. bishops have affirmed this teaching and have called for an end to the death penalty for decades.