Seattle, Wash., Nov 26, 2008 / 01:12 am
The Catholic bishops of Washington state are asking Gov. Chris Gregoire to commute the death sentence of Darold Ray Stenson, saying there is “no moral justification” for his upcoming lethal injection.
Stenson, 55, is scheduled to be executed on December 3. He was convicted of aggravated murder for the 1993 shooting deaths of his wife and a business partner while his three young children slept in his farmhouse nearby, the Seattle Times reports.
Archbishop of Seattle Alex Brunett, Bishop of Spokane William Skylstad, and Bishop of Yakima Carlos Sevilla wrote the governor this past Friday to ask that Stenson be spared the death penalty.
Expressing their understanding that the state is responsible to punish Stenson, they said “there remains no moral justification for imposing a sentence of death.”