Connecticut bishops continue efforts against capital punishment

By DENNIS CODAY

The death of Michael Ross, the convicted
rapist-murderer whose May 13 execution was the first
in New England in 45 years, “is about much more than a
person on death row,” according the head of the
Connecticut Catholic Conference, the public policy arm
of the state’s Catholic bishops.

“It is about us as a human society. We failed to
prevent our own denigration by this execution,” said
Marie T. Hilliard, the conference executive director.
The bishops had used their pastoral role and the
conference offices to lobby for keeping Ross alive,
citing in a Jan. 29 news release “our deep belief in
the need to end a cycle of violence, based on the
Gospel imperatives.”

Connecticut’s bishops have been active this year
trying to halt executions.

* On the second weekend in January, the Catholic
conference disseminated a petition to parishes
throughout the state, calling for abolition of the
death penalty. Nearly 40,000 Catholics signed it.
* Bishop Peter Rosazza, auxiliary bishop of
Hartford, testified before the state judiciary
committee in favor of abolishing the death penalty.
* The Connecticut bishops wrote to every state
legislator to support ending the death penalty.
* On March 30, the Legislature defeated 89 to 60 a
bill that would have abolished the death penalty.
Though they lost the final vote, bill supporters
counted as a victory the floor vote, which was the
closest in the state’s history of such legislation.
The bill was passed by two committees to advance as
far as it did.

Hilliard said those who opposed Ross’ execution were
left numb by his execution. “Now we have rallied,” she
said, “and are focusing on the future.”

“With the Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death
Penalty, we are focusing our efforts for the
legislative session of 2007,” she said, explaining
that the legislature focuses on fiscal matters on even
years.
Related Web site
Catholic Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty
http://www.ccedp.org

“Also by 2007, legislative elections will have
occurred. There may be some new faces in the
legislature,” Hilliard said.

The Connecticut bishops got a boost in their efforts
in March when the U.S. bishops’ conference launched
the Catholic Campaign to End the Use of the Death
Penalty, an education program for Catholics and a
lobbying effort for state legislatures and Congress.
With all of this happening, Hilliard said, “we will
have enhanced opportunity to change hearts and minds.”

Dennis Coday is an NCR staff writer. Claire
Schaeffer-Duffy, a freelance writer from Worchester,
Mass., contributed to this story.
In the two months since NCR last reported the names of
prisoners executed in the United States, 11 more have
been killed.

Glen Ocha, 47, was executed April 5 in Florida;
Richard Longworth, 36, was executed April 15 in South
Carolina; Douglas Roberts, 42, was executed April 20
in Texas; Bill J. Benefiel Jr., 48, was executed April
21 in Indiana; Donald Jones, 38, was executed April 27
in Missouri; Mario Centobie, 39, was executed April 28
in Alabama; Lonnie Wayne Pursley, 43, was executed May
3 in Texas; Earl J. Richmond, Jr., 43, was executed
May 6 in North Carolina; George James Miller Jr., 37,
was executed May 12 in Oklahoma; Michael Ross, 45, was
executed May 13 in Connecticut. Vernon Brown, 51, was
executed May 17 in Missouri. Brown was the 967th
person executed in the United States since the death
penalty was reinstated in 1976. Learn more about the
death penalty and organizations working to abolish it
at the Death Penalty Information Center on the Web at
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org.

National Catholic Reporter, May 27, 2005
http://ncronline.org/NCR_Online/archive ... 52705l.php

*************************************************************
I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all
else falls away.
~ Oriah Mountain Dreamer~
*************************************************************
Britta Slopianka
Florida Coordinator
Innocent In Prison Project
http://innocentinprison.org
IIPP Prison Forum
http://iipp.kr3.de/forum/index.php

Death Penalty News: http://disc.server.com/Indices/207906.html
Death Row from the Inside: http://againstdeathrows.blogspot.com/
German coalition to abolish the death penalty:
http://www.initiative-gegen-die-todesstrafe.de/

Please see our daily updates in Axis of Logic's section:
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Britta Slopianka, Axis of Logic
Correspondent in Germany
http://www.axisoflogic.com/