Catholic bishops have asked the state of Tennessee this week to replace the death penalty with life imprisonment, while US President Donald Trump approved an execution by a military firing squad. Source: EWTN News.
In a statement issued on October 2, the Tennessee Catholic Conference argued that life imprisonment without parole “serves justice, protects society, and respects the dignity of every human life.”
“Accountability for grave wrongdoing is necessary, but it does not require the taking of another life,” they wrote.
“An execution cannot restore the life taken, and the uncertainty, prolonged proceedings, and suffering surrounding the death penalty can deepen the anguish of everyone involved, including victims’ families, prisoners’ families, and those charged with carrying out executions.”
The bishops’ letter comes after the state’s recent failed attempt to execute the first woman in over 200 years, 50-year-old Christa Pike.
After two doses of pentobarbital failed to kill Pike on September 30, the execution was halted. She remains on a ventilator in critical condition.
The botched execution was the second for Tennessee this year and led to the resignation of Frank Strada, the commissioner of the Department of Corrections. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee placed a moratorium on executions for the rest of 2026.
The bishops wrote that “even those who commit terrible crimes retain their human dignity,” reflecting the Church’s revised stance on capital punishment.
Paragraph 2267 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, revised in 2018, states that the death penalty is no longer admissible because “the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes” and states should administer punishments that “do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption.”
Mr Trump, meanwhile, approved an execution by a military firing squad, the Pentagon announced on Monday.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell reported on X that Mr Trump approved the execution by military firing squad of “convicted terrorist” and “jihadist” Nidal Malik Hasan, the former US Army major who shouted “Allahu Akbar” while murdering 13 people and wounding 32 others at Fort Hood, an army base in Texas, on November 5, 2009.
Following a court martial, Hasan was sentenced to death in 2013. Parnell said the secretary of the Army will determine the date and location of the execution.
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Tennessee bishops call for end to death penalty; Trump approves military firing squad execution (EWTN News)
