News Archives » death penalty
Website Updates June 24th, 2011
Please check out the revised JPIC web pages on Immigration and Death Penalty. The pages offer an updated overview of our program work in these areas as well as new resource links.
The pages can be found in the Issues section of the website, under Human Dignity. Both pages can be accessed via hyperlinks on the Human Dignity page, or on the left navigation bar under Human Dignity. Death Penalty is in the section on Consistent Life. Or, just click on the hyperlinks on this page.
Abolition of the Death Penalty becomes law in Illinois March 11th, 2011
On March 9, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed legislation repealing the death penalty that state. The Oblate JPIC office commends the faith leaders and community groups – including many in the Oblate network – who worked hard to build a coalition to end the death penalty in Illinois. Since November of last year, the Oblate JPIC office has been providing advocacy resources and actions alerts to Oblate communities in Illinois to support their efforts to abolish the death penalty.
Learn more: Read the statement from the Catholic Bishops of Illinois.
Help Illinois Abolish the Death Penalty December 2nd, 2010
On November 30, an important victory was achieved in the Illinois State House Judiciary Committee when the committee voted to recommend passage of SB 3539 – the Death Penalty repeal bill. The bill – SB3539 creates a new fund supporting law enforcement training and services for families of murder victims. The bill is now headed to the State’s House floor for a vote.
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Please Take Action to Affirm the Dignity of Human Life September 3rd, 2010
Teresa Lewis is scheduled to be executed September 23, 2010 in Virginia. She was convicted in 2002 of persuading two men to kill her husband and stepson. Teresa Lewis has been on death row in Virginia since June 2003.
Now 41 and a mother and grandmother, Teresa Lewis would be the first woman executed in Virginia since 1912.
In solidarity with the Virginia Catholic Bishops, the U.S. Catholic bishops and the Papal Nuncio, we ask you please to contact Governor McDonnell and urge him to commute Teresa Lewis’s sentence to life in prison.
TAKE ACTION HERE : CONTACT VA GOVERNOR TO STOP EXECUTION SCHEDULED FOR SEPTEMBER 23.
Intellectual Underpinnings of Capital Punishment Removed January 5th, 2010
The American Law Institute, which decades ago developed the intellectual support for the modern death penalty and remained one of its last serious advocates, has disavowed the very structure it created and pronounced its death penalty project a failure.
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