Opposing the Death Penalty

When I was still a teenager, I became a pacifist, and I have remained so for nearly 70 years now. It was perhaps only a little later, and for some of the same reasons, that I became an opponent of the death penalty, and I ask you to consider that position as you read this post. 

The above meme was included in a blog post I made in December 2013. That article, which you can access here, is the only time I have dealt directly with the matter of the death penalty since I started this blog over 15 years ago. But this is an important matter that needs further consideration.

Support for the death penalty is at an all-time low among USAmericans, but still, accord­ing to a late 2024 Gallup poll, 53% of Americans say­ that they sup­port the death penal­ty. And in spite of decreasing public support, in 2024, the number of executions was the most since 2015 (with 2018 the same).

Of the 25 executions in 2024, 48% were non-White. Fifteen of those 25 were from only four states: Alabama (6), Texas (5), Oklahoma and Missouri (4). The average age of those executed was 52, but their average age at the time of offense was 27 (including four teenagers)—a 25-year gap!

Consider these prominent people’s opposition to the death penalty:

** Most prominent is Pope Francis, who changed the wording in the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 2018. It now reads,

… 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.

* Far earlier, Helen Prejean, a Catholic nun and the author of Dead Man Walking (1993), became a tireless advocate of abolishing the death penalty since first accompanying Elmo Patrick “Pat” Sonnier (b. 1950) to his execution by electrocution at Louisiana State Penitentiary on April 5, 1984.

From 1993 to 1995, Prejean served as the National Chairperson of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, which was founded in 1976.*¹

* Recently, I learned that John Grisham, the noted novelist, is also an opponent of the death penalty. Last October, I read the three novellas in his 2022 book Sparring Partners. The second, “Strawberry Moon,” is a touching story of a woman who became pen pals with a man facing execution.

Grisham’s main concern, it seems, has been the execution of people who were apparently innocent, and his latest book is Framed: Astonishing True Stories of Wrongful Conviction.*²

 * Former President Biden also opposes(d) the death penalty. In 2021, his Administration placed a moratorium on federal executions, and on December 23, 2024, he commuted the sentences of 37 individuals on the federal death row to sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole.*³

From 1972 to July 2020, there were only three federal executions. And even though there had been no federal executions since January 2021, during the last six months that Trump was in office as the 45^th President, there were thirteen federal prisoners executed, including the first woman in 67 years.

On inauguration day in 2025, the 47^th President rescinded Biden’s moratorium on federal executions. It is widely recognized that conservative White evangelicals favor the death penalty far more than do moderate/progressive Christians, so perhaps Pres. Trump was primarily pandering to his base.

If you would like to know more about why I oppose the death penalty, please read the last part of Chapter 9 in my book Fed Up with Fundamentalism (2007, 2020), even though the discussion there is also too brief.  

Or, please email me or post your questions/comments on the blogsite. I look forward to dialoguing with several of you on this important issue.

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*¹ At the invitation of Jesuits in Japan, Sister Prejean (b. 1939) visited Japan four times. In 2002, when she came to Fukuoka, June and I had the privilege of hearing her speak and then chatting with her. Last Sunday, we watched the 1995 movie Dead Man Walking and were impressed again by Sister Prejean. In the film, she was portrayed by Susan Sarandon, who won the 1996 Academy Award for Best Actress for that performance.

*² Grisham, who celebrated his 70^th birthday on February 8, was interviewed for an article in AARP Bulletin in October 2024. Twelve years ago, he was interviewed by Bill Moyers regarding Grisham’s first nonfiction novel, The Innocent Man. That interview, titled “John Grisham on Wrongful Death Penalty Convictions,” can be accessed here.

*³ Death penalties are usually carried out by state governments, but the federal government imposes and carries out a small minority of the death sentences in the U.S.

Racism in Religioussippi

According to Ecclesiastes 3:1, there is “a time for everything.” Among other things, that may mean there is a time for reading good literature and a time for reading popular novels.

This year so far has turned out to be the latter for me, as I have read three John Grisham novels since the beginning of the year.

I first decided to read “The Racketeer” (2012) because of the review of it my daughter-in-law posted on her blogsite, “Brenda’s Bookshelf.” Then my daughter Karen gave me a copy of Grisham’s new novel, “Sycamore Row,” for Christmas.

In mid-January, after finishing “The Racketeer,” which I found quite engaging, I started reading my Christmas present. I soon discovered it was the sequel to Grisham’s first novel.

So I put “Sycamore Row” on the back burner and read “A Time to Kill” (1989), which doubtlessly reflects the words of Ecclesiastes 3:3. It was a long (765 pages in the large print edition), spellbinding novel.

Grisham’s books may not be great literature, but they are alluringly-told narratives.

Then June and I watched the movie with the same name as the 1989 novel. I enjoyed it greatly—as did June, who had not read the book—and thought the end of the movie was better than the book’s ending.

A couple of weeks ago I finished reading “Sycamore Row,” which took place three years later in the same Mississippi town as “A Time to Kill” with Jake Brigance, the same youngish lawyer, as the central character.

A common theme of the two books is the racial tension between whites and blacks in the fictional north Miss. town of Clanton. And even though the first book was set in 1985, the demonic activities of the KKK played a prominent role in it.

In discussing the race issue in the new novel, Lucien, an aging, disbarred lawyer, says to Jake, “Everything is about race in Mississippi, Jake, don’t ever forget that.”

(Many of you will remember that the popular novel/movie “The Help” was also set in Mississippi.) 


Early this month, “Religioussippi” was the title of an online article by Religious News Service. That article started,

 Once again, Mississippi ranks as the nation’s most religious state . . . according to Gallup’s annual religiosity rankings. More than 60 percent of Mississippians call themselves “very religious.”

So if Mississippi is as racist as Grisham portrays in his novels—which, unfortunately, it probably is, although not as bad now as 30 years ago—how can that be reconciled with Mississippi being the most religious state?

Well, on the one hand it means that there are many African-Americans in Mississippi—a higher percentage (37.3%) than any other state—and a large percentage of them are strongly religious.

But it probably also means that for many white Mississippians, their religion has not been broad (or deep) enough to embrace black people as equals in every sense.

There are exceptions, of course. I have known Mississippians like Jake, the central character in the two books mentioned above, who treat African-Americans in the community with respect and dignity.

Many others, though, including some church people, not only look down on blacks but on people like Jake as well for being too friendly with “them.”

I am sad that the most religious state in the nation is also one of the most racist states.

That shouldn’t be so. But, unhappily, that seems to be the case.