On the Trump Administration Executive Order of January 20, entitled “Restoring the Death Penalty and Protecting Public Safety”

Jan. 21, 2025
Press Statement
By Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, Executive Director of Catholic Mobilizing Network

President Trump’s Executive Order on the death penalty makes no sense.

What we know about the death penalty is that it does not deter crime or make communities safer. It’s immoral, flawed and risky, arbitrary and unfair, cruel and dehumanizing. Both the state and federal death penalty systems are broken beyond repair, and emblematic of a throwaway culture.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states unequivocally that “the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that ‘the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,’ and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide.” (2267)

As faithful anti-death penalty advocates, we know lives hang in the balance. Our work will not be over until capital punishment has been completely abandoned at every level of government in the United States. Despite this regrettable declaration from President Trump, we will keep doing what we have done for 15 years — we will pray and advocate and educate and advance restorative practices until this system of death is dismantled and our communities flourish amid a culture of life.

As Pope Francis said on Jan. 9, the death penalty “finds no justification today among the instruments capable of restoring justice.” Amen.

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Headquartered in Washington, D.C., Catholic Mobilizing Network is a national organization that mobilizes Catholics and people of goodwill to end the death penalty, advance justice solutions in alignment with Catholic values and promote healing through restorative justice approaches and practices. For more information, visit catholicsmobilizing.org.