Florida Catholic | U.S. Executions Are Not A 'Catholic Thing'

Jesus in my pocket, a column by Dale Recinella.

U.S. executions are not a ‘Catholic thing’

Published: 08.12.08

On July 3, 2007, The Irish Times reported on a pro-death penalty Supreme Court justice’s address to the University College Dublin. The article noted the expression of his view that many U.S. states believe justice requires the death penalty. This evangelization of the American death penalty gospel to members of the European Union is not new. I have encountered it firsthand with other American commentators who travel abroad to advocate the restoration of the death penalty in Europe.

Presumably, the purpose of this effort is to shore up the U.S. retention of the death penalty, which currently isolates our country from all other Western democracies in the world. For calendar year 2007, we shared the honor of being in the top five countries for executions with China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, the same group members that were our capital punishment peers for 2005. For calendar year 2006, Sudan and Iraq edged out the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, causing our country to fall to 6th, still ahead of the Saudis.

Another common thread I find among those who preach the virtues of U.S. executions abroad is assertion of the erroneous belief that American Catholicism, as a demographic presence in the country, supports and bolsters the use of the American death penalty. That is simply not true. Nor is the assertion that many U.S. states deem executions necessary for justice. The actual numbers quite clearly show the contrary.

As detailed in a recent article published in America magazine, “Ending the death penalty: What one Catholic Supreme Court justice could do” (April 28, 2008), my research indicates that the use of the death penalty in the U.S. is localized in the Bible belt. Moreover, although 34 states have the death penalty on their books, more than 91 percent of the 1,096 state-level U.S. executions (from 1976 through 2007) have taken place in just 14 of the 50 states. More than two-thirds of U.S. jurisdictions, the other 36 states and the District of Columbia, are either not participating at all (17 with no executions) or virtually not participating (six had only one execution in 31 years; another five had only two or three over 31 years).

Almost 88 percent of those 1,096 executions and all 12 of the executions so far in 2008 have occurred in the Bible belt: the area of the U.S. consisting of the 11 states and territory (Oklahoma) of the Confederacy and the slaveholding border states. That is the area where the greatest religious influence is Southern Baptist.

Even more astounding is the inversely proportional relationship between Catholic presence in the population and the occurrence of executions:

• In the 19 jurisdictions where Catholics constitute more than 21 percent of the population, the average number of executions per state over 31 years is only three.

• In the 19 where Catholics make up less than 16 percent of the population, the average number of executions per state over 31 years is 25.

• For the 12 states where Catholics are less than 10 percent of the population, the average number of executions per state over 31 years is 32, more than 10 times the amount in states where Catholics have the greatest presence.

In December of 2007, the state of New Jersey, the third most Catholic state in the country, became the first state since 1976 to legislatively abolish the death penalty. New York, the fourth most Catholic state, has ended it judicially. Neither state has had any executions in the last 31 years.

In fact, all combined, the eight most Catholic states in the U.S. have had a total of only two executions in the last 31 years.

Clearly, U.S. executions are not a “Catholic thing.”

Recinella is the coordinator of Death Row Ministries, St. Mary’s Church, Macclenny.

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