The Federal Death Penalty: What All Catholics Need to Know
President Biden is the first president to oppose capital punishment publicly. He campaigned on an anti-death penalty platform, and on Jul. 1, 2021, Biden’s Department of Justice ordered an official moratorium on federal executions. Though an encouraging step, it does not prevent future administrations from halting it or even initiating an execution spree.
Additional actions within President Biden’s power would help dismantle the federal death penalty and honor the dignity of human life. While he can and should negotiate with Congress and the states to remove the death penalty from law, more efficient actions are also possible: with the stroke of a pen, President Biden can commute all federal death sentences immediately. President Biden can and should pursue these additional abolition actions and uphold the church’s anti-death penalty teachings.
What is federal commutation? President Biden has the constitutional authority to grant clemency to those on federal death row. Clemency is an act where a person’s sentence is reduced or a full pardon is granted. For most people on death row, the request for clemency is to reduce their sentence from the death penalty to life in prison without the chance of parole.
A Federal Killing Spree
In July 2020, after a 17-year hiatus from federal executions, the Trump administration restarted the practice of capital punishment and took the lives of 13 people in the span of six months. The resumption of executions was notably out of step with recent progress made in the U.S. toward abolishing the death penalty. (Consider: Since the government’s last execution in 2003, eleven states have abolished capital punishment, and public support for the practice is at a historic low.)
Names of the 13 Individuals Executed in the
2020-2021 Federal Execution SpreeDaniel Lewis Lee – July 14, 2020
Wesley Ira Purkey – July 16, 2020
Dustin Lee Honken – July 17, 2020
Lezmond Mitchell – August 26, 2020
Keith Dwayne Nelson – August 28, 2020
William LeCroy – September 22, 2020
Christopher Vialva – September 24, 2020
Orlando Hall – November 19, 2020
Brandon Bernard – December 10, 2020
Alfred Bourgeois – December 11, 2020
Lisa Montgomery – January 12, 2021
Corey Johnson – January 14, 2021
Dustin Higgs – January 15, 2021
Broken Beyond Repair
The federal death penalty is a deeply flawed system that targets the most vulnerable among us. Consider the following:
Racially Biased
The federal death penalty reflects the same racial bias found in state death penalty systems.
Vulnerable Populations
Every person executed by the federal government in 2020 had one or more significant mental or emotional impairments or was under age 21 at the time of their crime.
Geographically Arbitrary
The federal death penalty is not a “national” punishment applied equally throughout the country. Just 3 states are responsible for nearly half of all federal death sentences.
Out of Step
Federal executions do not reflect national trends in public opinion — which continue to shift away from the death penalty — nor do they reflect declining rates of state executions.
More About the Federal Death Penalty
Learn more, and find out about how you can take action.
Join us in urging President Joe Biden to exercise his constitutional authority to save the lives of all 40 men on the federal death row.
In this webinar, you’ll hear from Catholic Mobilizing Network, a lawyer with decades of experience litigating capital cases as a defense attorney, and a religious sister who has provided spiritual accompaniment for individuals residing on the federal death row in Terre Haute, Indiana—even accompaniment to their execution.
Help CMN end the death penalty
Join our community to educate, advocate, and pray for abolition.