By Daniel Payne CNA Staff, Oct 25, 2025 / 06:00 am Bishops in multiple U.S. states are leading efforts to spare the lives of condemned prisoners facing execution — urging clemency in line with the Catholic Church’s relatively recent but unambiguous declaration that the death penalty is not permissible and should …

The Holy See calls for universal abolition of the death penalty, noting that the unchallengeable, God-given dignity of every human person is immutable from conception to natural death. By Sr. Christine Masivo, CPS The Holy See addressed the 2025 Warsaw Human Dimension Conference during the plenary session on the rule …

By Daniel Payne CNA Newsroom, Dec 23, 2024 / 09:40 am President Joe Biden on Monday commuted the death row sentences of more than three dozen federal prisoners, ordering that the formerly condemned inmates serve out life sentences instead of being executed by the government. The White House announced the clemencies on …

By Daniel Payne CNA Staff, Oct 18, 2024 / 17:15 pm A condemned Texas man’s execution has been halted after lawmakers subpoenaed him to appear before the state Legislature amid claims of his innocence. The Supreme Court of Texas said in a post on X late Thursday that it had “granted …

By Jonah McKeown St. Louis, Mo., Sep 25, 2024 / 13:20 pm Missouri executed Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams on Tuesday evening for the brutal murder of a St. Louis journalist in 1998 despite significant local and national outcry from Catholics and others who begged state authorities not to carry out the execution, …

By Kevin J. Jones Denver, Colo., Jul 24, 2023 / 13:00 pm Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City responded to Oklahoma’s execution of convicted murderer Jemaine Cannon with a call for the abolition of the death penalty, which he called an “archaic punishment.” Coakley also called for prayers for the condemned …

By Francesca Pollio Fenton Denver, Colo., Jul 4, 2023 / 07:00 am Darryl Barwick was 19 years old when he killed 24-year-old Rebecca Wendt on March 31, 1986, at her Panama City, Florida, apartment. After watching her sunbathe by the pool, he followed her back to her room where he stabbed …

by Joe Bukuras Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 6, 2022 / 15:56 pm In response to a federal court decision affirming the constitutionality of Oklahoma’s death penalty protocol, Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City on Monday called on state lawmakers to end the death penalty. “No matter the decision of the …

Kwame was just 17 when he, along with his older brother and another childhood friend, were sentenced to death for the robbery and murder of a man outside a convenience store in Cleveland. The three had no criminal records, no physical evidence against them was found and credible eye-witnesses testified …

By Christine Rousselle Washington D.C., May 19, 2021 / 15:15 pm America/Denver (CNA). Catholics are asking the governor of Texas to halt an execution scheduled for Wednesday evening. Quintin Jones, 41, who was sentenced to death in 2001 for the 1999 murder of his great-aunt, is scheduled to be executed …