The Death Penalty

As of July 2000 there were 3682 people on death row in 38 states. As the year 2001 opens, there is unparalleled activism and mobilization for both moratorium and abolition movements throughout the country, and across the globe.

ICJP opposes the death penalty on both theoretical and practical levels. In principle, the traditions of Jesus and Catholic Social Teaching, the mission statement of ICJP, the charisms of our member congregations, and the responsibility as religious to work to advance the gospel of justice and life place us in strong opposition to capital punishment. The many questions of inequality and injustice that exist in the sentencing and imposition of the death penalty violate these traditions and beliefs, especially in regards to 8 issues: race, class, culture, nationality, execution of the mentally ill and mentally retarded, execution of juveniles, cruelty of capital punishment, and the execution and/or death row imprisonment of innocent people. It is in light of all these issues and aspects of capital punishment that ICJP is committed to working to end its existence in the United States.

For more information:
•Death Penalty Information Center: www.deathpenaltyinfo.org
•Amnesty International: www.amnestyusa.org/
•National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty: www.ncadp.org •United States Catholic Conference (U.S. Bishops' statement on criminal justice, including the Death Penalty): www.nccbuscc.org