Panel won’t restrict death penalty
To the dismay of Catholic advocacy groups, a Senate committee has voted against a bill to restrict capital punishment in Virginia.
By Margo Maier
To the dismay of Catholic advocacy groups, a Senate committee has voted against a bill to restrict capital punishment in Virginia. The Senate Courts of Justice Committee voted 10-3 last Wednesday to “pass by indefinitely” Senate Bill 1296, sponsored by Sen. Donald McEachin, D-Richmond. The bill would have allowed the death sentence only when the conviction was supported by DNA or other biological evidence or when a video “conclusively connects the defendant to the offense” – for example, with a “voluntary interrogation and confession.”
The next day, members of the Virginia Catholic Charter, representing church members from throughout the state, gathered in Richmond for Catholic Advocacy Day, an annual summit addressing key issues before the General Assembly.
Measures to reform Virginia’s death penalty have come before the assembly over the past several years, but none have made it out of committee. SB 1296 was aimed at reducing the risk of executing innocent people.
Since 1973, 150 people have been exonerated from death row nationwide, sometimes because crucial evidence had been withheld. Virginia has exonerated one in that time and approved clemency for another eight inmates. The state’s procedure for issuing a death sentence has come under scrutiny from advocacy groups such as Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. The organization says capital punishment is unfair because of racial bias, problems with evidence, and other issues.
Michael Stone, executive director of the group, saw McEachin’s bill “as a symbolic measure that we hope will open up a dialog among legislators.”
“There was no real hope of getting the bill through this session because of the political makeup of the assembly, but the fact that it was introduced to the committee by McEachin is still a good sign for us,” Stone said. “SB 1296 was an attempt to move Virginia to where Maryland was before it abolished the death penalty.”
Since 1976, when the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty, Virginia has carried out 110 executions, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The state has not executed anyone since 2013.
With a firmly pro-life stance, the Catholic church of Virginia is morally opposed to the death penalty and advocates for alternative measures, such as life in prison without the possibility of parole for those found guilty of heinous crimes. The Virginia Catholic Conference, the public policy group that organizes Catholic Advocacy Day every year at the capital, shares views on social justice that resonate with many concerned citizens outside the realm of religion.
The conference’s priorities include preventing wrongful convictions, restoring voting rights to non-violent felons, expanding Medicaid (the health insurance program for low-income families), passing the Virginia DREAM act (which would allow certain illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition to attend college in Virginia) and closing the “gun-show loophole,” which exempts private firearms sales from criminal background checks.
How They Voted
How the Senate Courts of Justice Committee voted Wednesday on SB 1296 (Death sentence; requirements for imposition).
01/28/15 Senate: Passed by indefinitely in Courts of Justice (10-Y 3-N 1-A)
- YEAS – Norment, Obenshain, Saslaw, McDougle, Stuart, Vogel, Stanley, Reeves, Garrett, Chafin – 10.
- NAYS – Howell, Puller, McEachin – 3.
- **ABSTENTIONS **- Edwards – 1.
Photo by: AudioVision – Public Radio, Visualized
-
Recommend this
on Facebook -
Report an error
-
Subscribe to our
Weekly Digest
Notice: Comments that are not conducive to an interesting and thoughtful conversation may be removed at the editor’s discretion.
Catholic leadership seems totally confused about the term “pro life”
From Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI
“Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia. For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion. While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.”
from paragraph 3, “Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion. General Principles”, part of memorandum sent by Cardinal Ratzinger to Cardinal McCarrick, made public July 2004.
http://www.ewtn.com/library/curia/cdfworthycom.html
Cardinal Ratzinger was Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith when he made that statement. He was appointed to that position by Pope (Now Saint) John Paul II.
The “congregation’s sole objective is to ‘spread sound Catholic doctrine and defend those points of Christian tradition which seem in danger because of new and unacceptable doctrines”. The Prefect is the senior voice within that congregation.
THE DEATH PENALTY: SAVING MORE INNOCENT LIVES
Dudley Sharp
The death penalty saves more innocent lives, in three ways, than does life without parole (LWOP) (1,2).
No credible case of an innocent executed, in the US, at least since the 1930’s (1,2).
Since 1973:
(a) there have been 14,000 – 28,000 actual innocents murdered by those known murderers that we allowed to murder, again – recidivist murderers (two different recidivism studies from different years) (1)
(b) up to 200,000 have been murdered by those criminals we have released or not incarcerated (1).
The evidence that the death penalty deters some is overwhelming (1,2).
The evidence that the death penalty deters none does not exist (1,2).
Death is feared more than life. Life is preferred over death. What is feared more deters more. What is preferred more deters less.
The “exonerated” and “innocent” released from death row is an obvious fraud, easily found by fact checking, yet, most often, simply passed onto the public by the media, aiding in that fraud, even though the anti death penalty folks have admitted the deception (3).
1) The Death Penalty: Do Innocents Matter? A Review of All Innocence Issues
http(COLON)//prodpinnc.blogspot(DOT)com/2013/10/the-death-penalty-do-innocents-matter.html
2) OF COURSE THE DEATH PENALTY DETERS: A review of the debate
and
MURDERERS MUCH PREFER LIFE OVER EXECUTION
99.7% of murderers tell us “Give me life, not execution”
http(COLON)//prodpinnc.blogspot(DOT)com/2013/03/of-course-death-penalty-deters.html
3) The Innocence Frauds
Innocence Project Invents False Confessions
250% error rate in “confessions”
http(COLON)//prodpinnc.blogspot(DOT)com/2013/10/the-innocence-project-invents-false.html
70-83% of the anti death penalty folks claims of death row exonerations are false. see 3-13
The Innocent Frauds: Standard Anti Death Penalty Strategy
http(COLON)//prodpinnc.blogspot(DOT)com/2013/04/the-innocent-frauds-standard-anti-death.html
Journalism professor accused of framing innocent man for murder as part of his campaign to abolish death penalty in Illinois, Daily Mail, November 10, 2014,
www(DOT)dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2829019/Journalism-professor-accused-framing-innocent-man-murder-campaign-abolish-death-penalty-Illinois.html