McCollum proposes amendment to end death penalty

Rep. Betty McCollum introduced a Constitutional amendment to ban the death penalty Wednesday in part to coincide with the U.S. visit of Pope Benedict XVI, the world’s most well-known death-penalty opponent. In addition, McCollum’s proposal comes the same day the U.S. Supreme Court found lethal injection to be a constitutional method of capital punishment, thereby ending a seven-month moratorium on capital punishment in the United States.

“Criminals who are found guilty of committing heinous acts should be sentenced to life in prison as a punishment and for the well-being of society,” McCollum said in a press release. “The death penalty, by contrast, does not serve society’s interests — it is damaging and harmful. Fighting crime, achieving justice and elevating human dignity are all damaged by state-sponsored executions. We know the death penalty is more expensive to implement than regular sentences. It does not reduce crime, and it imposes a shared societal responsibillity for killing another human being on behalf of a justice system that is clearly not perfect.”

Thirty-six states, the federal government and the U.S. military currently allow for the death penalty, which was banned in Minnesota in 1911. The United States is one of the few industrialized nations that use the death penalty. Only a handful of North and South American countries still execute citizens. Besides the U.S., these include Cuba, Honduras and Belize.

Regardless of the attitude of much of the developed world and the pope, Americans still have a favorable view of the death penalty. A March 2008 Harris Interactive poll found that 63 percent of Americans support the death penalty, and only 30 percent oppose it. When respondents are told that over 100 Americans have been released from death row after finding doubt as to their guilt, 58 percent change their mind and oppose the death penalty. Further, 52 percent of Americans do not think capital punishment deters crime.

Given the lack of support for ending the death penalty in the United States, McCollum’s amendment will likely be a symbolic gesture intended to generate a discussion on an issue on which Catholics and progressives agree. “The Supreme Court’s decision today was painful for those of us who believe the death penalty is immoral,” said McCollum. “No one can respond with greater moral authority or spiritual wisdom on this subject than His Holiness.”