In preparation for the upcoming Supreme Court case, Glossip v. Gross, which will decide the legality of certain forms of execution by injection, The National Catholic Register, along with three other Catholic-aligned national publications, has declared that “capital punishment must end.”
“The Catholic Church in this country has fought against the death penalty for decades,” an editorial published on the magazine’s site said. “The practice is abhorrent and unnecessary.”
This isn’t the first time American Catholics have been vocal about their opposition to the death penalty. In fact, Catholic movements have often been the driving force behind re-evaluation the use of capital punishment in America.
To help add context to the debate, we've compiled data relevant to the history of the death penalty in the infographic below.
Create InfographicsJJ Feinauer is a writer and web producer for Deseret News National. Email: jfeinauer@deseretdigital.com, Twitter: jjfeinauer.