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.

When Punishment Is a Crime

You may have heard about the recent execution of Joseph Paul Franklin, the white supremacist serial killer. There were TV and radio news stories about it for various reasons.

Shortly before Franklin was given a lethal injection of pentobarbityal, a district judge issued a stay of execution. But that stay, based upon use of the new drug for the first time, was overturned by a federal appeals court and then upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. So, Franklin was put to death at Bonne Femme, Mo., early on the morning Nov. 20.

Franklin (b. 1950) was executed for the 1977 murder of a man outside a St. Louis synagogue in 1977. Altogether, he had been convicted of eight murders—and had been blamed for 14 others between 1977 and 1980 in what was called “a bid to start a race war.”

In addition to the homicides, Franklin shot and wounded “Hustler” magazine publisher Larry Flynt in March 1978 and then civil rights leader Vernon Jordan in May 1980. Franklin’s execution was in the news in the days before his capital punishment partly because of Flynt, who is now 71.

Flynt, whom I recently saw described as a vulgarian (which seems to be an apt description), is opposed to the death penalty and voiced his objection Franklin’s upcoming execution in the TV interview.

I have had very little respect for Flynt, who has spent most of his life peddling pornography. He began publishing his trashy magazine in 1974. Just four year later he was shot by Franklin, who was incensed by the interracial photos he saw in “Hustler.”

Flynt was left partially paralyzed with permanent spinal cord damage and in need of a wheelchair. An overdose of pain killers caused a stroke; he recovered but has had pronunciation difficulties ever since. That was his condition when I saw him on TV last month.

In that interview he said, “I find it totally absurd that a government that forbids killing is allowed to use that same crime as punishment.”

While I have no sympathy for white supremacist murderers, and while I find Flynt’s career reprehensible, I have to agree with what Flynt said in opposition to Franklin’s execution. What good did it do—especially after all these years?

Franklin was only 27 when he killed the man for whom he was killed—36 years later at the age of 63. He was sentenced to death in Feb. 1997—and then it was 16½ years before he was executed. Why kill him after all that time?

On the night before his execution, supporters of Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (MADP) held a candlelight vigil for Franklin on the steps of a church in St. Louis. MADP, whose board includes several religious leaders from various Christian denominations, is scheduled to hold another vigil at noon today in Springfield.

Today’s protest is because the execution of Allen Nicklasson is scheduled for tomorrow (Dec. 11). Nicklasson (b. 1972) also committed a heinous crime and has been on “death row” since 1996. One of his accomplices, Dennis Skillicom, was executed in May 2009—the 67^th in Missouri since 1989.

In interviews just a day or two before his execution, Franklin emphasized that he no longer has feelings of hate for blacks or Jewish people. He also said, “I would like to have a chance, though, to make amends for what I've done. I’d like to get out and do a lot of good for people.”

Especially if that was true, his punishment was a crime.