Catholic bishops urge Biden to spare all death row inmates before leaving office

USCCB launched a campaign Monday calling on Catholics to write to the outgoing president in an effort to revise the death sentences of 40 inmates down to life imprisonment sentences. “President Biden has an extraordinary opportunity to advance the cause of human dignity by commuting all federal death sentences to terms of imprisonment and sparing the lives of the 40 men currently on federal death row,” USCCB wrote.

The Bishops have long held their opposition to capital punishment, publishing an official stance in 1980 that cited the Church’s teachings on reconciliation and repentance.

“[O]ut of a commitment to the value and dignity of human life, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, by a substantial majority, voted to declare its opposition to capital punishment,” USCCB wrote at the time in a statement. “We should acknowledge that in the public debate over capital punishment, we are dealing with values of the highest importance: respect for the sanctity of human life, the protection of human life, the preservation of order in society, and the achievement of justice through law. We should not expect simple or easy solutions to what is a profound evil, and even less should we rely on capital punishment to provide such a solution. Rather, we must look to the claims of justice as these are understood in the current debate and to the example and teaching of Jesus whom we acknowledge as the Justice of God.”

USCCB previously called on Biden at the beginning of his term in 2021 to abolish the death penalty and asked the outgoing Trump administration to halt the execution of several inmates. The Bishops cited Pope Francis’ 2018 update to the Catechism of the Catholic Church issuing a firm stance against the practice, calling it “inadmissible.”

“[T]here is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes,” the Catechism reads. “In addition, a new understanding has emerged of the significance of penal sanctions imposed by the state. Lastly, more effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the due protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption.”

Biden recently pardoned his felon son, Hunter Biden, who was convicted of knowingly possessing a gun while suffering from a drug addiction and making false statements on the purchase document.

The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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