Washington D.C., Apr 30, 2021 / 09:00 am
Catholics are calling on President Joe Biden to honor his campaign promises to halt use of the federal death penalty, as his presidency surpasses 100 days.
“When President Biden took office 100 days ago, our country was in the aftermath of a horrific spree of federal executions ordered by the Trump administration,” said Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, executive director of Catholic Mobilizing Network, in a statement provided to CNA.
“Having seen the grave harm possible at the hands of an administration bent on taking lives, many Catholics were hopeful that President Biden would prioritize taking the steps within his power to dismantle the federal death penalty,” she said. “But this has not yet been the case.”
In 2019, President Donald Trump’s Justice Department announced it would resume executions of federal death row inmates after a nearly two-decade pause on the federal death penalty. The administration put 13 inmates to death beginning in July 2020; it conducted six of the executions after the presidential election in November.