Time to stay the executions?
The Son of Man comes “to save what was lost,” Jesus says in this Sunday’s gospel. Three men sentenced to death only to have their lives spared when they were exonerated years later have been on a speaking tour with a Catholic priest urging . . .
The Son of Man comes “to save what was lost,” Jesus says in this Sunday’s gospel. Three men who had been sentenced to death, only to have their lives spared when they were exonerated years later, have been on a speaking tour with a Catholic priest urging the abolition of the death penalty.
Delbert Tibbs, Joe D’Ambrosio, and Damon Thibodeaux, who collectively spent almost 40 years on death row before being set free, gave 10 talks in five days in Ohio this past week in hopes of persuading people to oppose the death penalty. “I do what I do,” Thibodeaux said, “because I don’t want to see this happen to somebody else. And I don’t want to see the next execution of an innocent man [sic].”
Traveling with the trio are Father Neil Kookoothe, a Cleveland Catholic priest whose efforts led to D’Ambrosio’s freedom, and two British filmmakers, Will Francome and Mark Pizzey, who have documented cases of exonerated death-row inmates.
Common reasons for death sentences being overturned include false accounts by witnesses, prosecutorial misconduct, and forced confessions, the filmmakers said. Francome and Pizzey report that 142 people have been freed from death row, representing 10 percent of the number of prisoners executed since the death penalty was reinstated in the 1970s. They named their documentary series One For Ten.
Homily hint: Death-row exonerations have increased significantly with the advent of DNA testing. The prospect that even one innocent person might be put to death for a crime they did not commit should be enough to convince anyone to hit the pause button on capital punishment. There are other ways to see that justice is served while also recognizing the inevitability of human error and therefore not exacting a punishment that can never be undone.
Delbert Tibbs, Joe D’Ambrosio, and Damon Thibodeaux, who collectively spent almost 40 years on death row before being set free, gave 10 talks in five days in Ohio this past week in hopes of persuading people to oppose the death penalty. “I do what I do,” Thibodeaux said, “because I don’t want to see this happen to somebody else. And I don’t want to see the next execution of an innocent man [sic].”
Traveling with the trio are Father Neil Kookoothe, a Cleveland Catholic priest whose efforts led to D’Ambrosio’s freedom, and two British filmmakers, Will Francome and Mark Pizzey, who have documented cases of exonerated death-row inmates.
Common reasons for death sentences being overturned include false accounts by witnesses, prosecutorial misconduct, and forced confessions, the filmmakers said. Francome and Pizzey report that 142 people have been freed from death row, representing 10 percent of the number of prisoners executed since the death penalty was reinstated in the 1970s. They named their documentary series One For Ten.
Homily hint: Death-row exonerations have increased significantly with the advent of DNA testing. The prospect that even one innocent person might be put to death for a crime they did not commit should be enough to convince anyone to hit the pause button on capital punishment. There are other ways to see that justice is served while also recognizing the inevitability of human error and therefore not exacting a punishment that can never be undone.
Source: An article by David Yonke for Religion News Service