Death Row Conversion

In the current issue of Mother Jones -- dedicated, for the most part, to breathless and superficial speculation about "where the religious right is taking us" -- there is this article, "Death Row Conversion", the central claim of which is this:  "Traditional opponents of capital punishment have gained powerful and unlikely allies: American Catholics, many of them conservatives defending a 'culture of life.'"

Sigh.  I know this is a bit snarky, but this business of scare-quotes around the culture of life, and the suggestion that there is something "unlikely" about Catholics dedicated to the dignity of the human person working to abolish capital punishment is tiresome.  One might just as well comment on the "unlikely" alliance of Catholics committed to the dignity of the human person with secularists on the left, whose appreciation for that dignity is not always and has not always been clearly revealed.  In any event, it's a good article, and it makes good use of Richard Dieter, a real stand-up guy:

“Not so long ago you couldn’t get anyone to express doubts about the death penalty,” says Richard Dieter, director of the Death Penalty Information Center and himself a Catholic. “Then you have this Catholic voice coming in, and coming in loudly, and saying, ‘This is our issue, too, and we are firmly against it.’ It sounds like something you might hear from the left wing, but Pope John Paul was hardly a radical. [RG:  Actually, he was.]  And so the debate changes. It becomes about the merits of the issue rather than some fringe idea.”

Death-penalty abolitionists seem willing to accept the rightward tilt of these potential adherents. “The church brings a strong moral voice to the issue,” says Diann Rust-Tierney, executive director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. “It is welcome and it is timely. This is the time to push.”

. . .  Death by increments is the way that the death penalty is most likely to meet its demise, says the Pew Forum’s Green. “It would be very difficult to abolish the death penalty in one fell swoop,” he says. “Public opinion isn’t there. I do think that the emphasis the Catholic hierarchy has placed on this issue is likely to inspire a lot more activism, which presents real opportunities for change.” Richard Dieter concurs: “The death penalty is not going to end because of a moral revolution,” he says. “People aren’t going to swing over to the Catholic side. Most Americans don’t think that way. But there’s an openness to consider it now, which the Catholic Church has made possible. I’m not morally weak for opposing the death penalty. I’m morally strong. That is a big change.”