U.S. Attorney General William Barr announced in July that the government was reinstating the federal death penalty

A federal judge has placed federal executions on hold. Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory and Bishop Frank J. Dewane write that we should turn back permanently from the path of death.

The poll showed 60% prefer that convicted murders receive a sentence of life imprisonment, while 36% said capital punishment would be better.

Japan, the United States and South Korea are the only nations in the OECD group of developed economies that have the death penalty.

A federal judge Nov. 20 temporarily blocked the executions of four federal death-row inmates scheduled for December and January, saying the lethal injections they were to receive goes against the Federal Death Penalty Act.

Lest the reader assume that Sister Prejean’s work against the death penalty, is the sum total of her story, she spends the final pages of her afterword calling out the places where she sees continued injustices, particularly in the treatment of women and L.G.B.T. people in the church.