WASHINGTON — The nation's Catholic bishops voted 237-4 Tuesday to reaffirm their opposition to the death penalty, which a new poll shows is losing support among Catholics.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which launched an anti-death penalty campaign in the spring, contends the death penalty is unnecessary when other forms of incarceration are available. The bishops also say it contributes to what they describe as a culture of death and is sometimes applied to the innocent.
"The official teaching of the church is that the use of the death penalty is not necessary today," said Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, head of the domestic policy committee that drafted the death penalty statement.
On Sunday, several dozen bishops listened to Kirk Bloodsworth tell his story of being sentenced to die death in Maryland for the murder of a 9-year-old girl — a crime he didn't commit. Bloodsworth, who converted to Catholicism while in jail, was the first death-row inmate exonerated through the use of post-conviction DNA evidence. He was freed in 1993 after serving eight years in jail — two of them on death row.
Bishops also heard from David Kaczynski, who tipped off authorities that his reclusive brother, Ted, might be the Unabomber, who sent explosive devices through the mail. David Kaczynski said law enforcement officials reneged on their pledge not to seek the death penalty against his brother. Ted Kaczynski ultimately got a plea bargain for life in prison.
A poll this month by Zogby International showed that support among Catholics for the death penalty has dropped from 70 percent to 50 percent. The poll found that opposition to the death penalty is strongest among weekly churchgoers, younger Catholics and those who attended Catholic colleges.
Still, many prominent American Catholics, including some lawmakers and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, support the death penalty.
The new statement does not criticize Catholic governors who sign death warrants or prosecutors who seek the death penalty.
Unlike abortion and euthanasia, which the Catholic bishops consider intrinsically evil, they acknowledge that government has the right to execute criminals.
John Carr, secretary of the bishops department for social development and world peace, noted that a new Justice Department report released Sunday showed the number of death row inmates has dropped.
At the end of last year, the number of death row inmates stood at 3,315 - 63 fewer than the year before, according to the Justice Department. The number of executions this year stood at 49 through Nov. 9 compared to 59 in all of 2004.
Thirty-six states and the federal government have death penalty laws, including six states that have no minimum age for executions.