December 5, 2000

Bishops, others press Clinton to grant clemency in capital cases
By Patricia Zapor
Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- With just days to go before the first federal execution in 37 years, the president of the U.S. bishops' conference and several groups of religious leaders urged President Clinton to grant clemency to Juan Raul Garza and all others on federal death row. Letters and statements released shortly before Garza's scheduled Dec. 12 execution also repeated calls for a moratorium on federal executions until the system can be studied in greater detail. One letter even asked Clinton to grant clemency to all federal prisoners who are serving lengthy sentences for nonviolent drug cases. Another one encouraged him to approach the clemency requests as a way of honoring the jubilee year and of creating a life-giving legacy as he leaves the White House.

Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote to Clinton Dec. 5 asking him to commute the death sentences of all 31 people awaiting execution in federal prisons, and to declare a moratorium on federal executions. ``Our request takes on special urgency since ... Garza faces execution on Dec. 12,'' wrote Bishop Fiorenza, of Galveston-Houston. Garza's execution would be the first death sentence carried out by the federal government since 1963. ``For Catholics, this day is the great feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patron saint of the Americas, who appeared before a peasant to share the Good News that God has special concern for the poor and forgotten. Despite their horrible crimes, the men and women on our nation's death rows are often themselves poor and forgotten.''

Garza, a Mexican-American and a Catholic, was convicted of three Texas murders under federal drug kingpin statutes.  Bishop Fiorenza's letter said the courageous acts of calling for a moratorium or commuting the death sentences ``would demonstrate to the nation and the world that Americans are turning away from death and towards life by protecting even the lives of those who failed to demonstrate a similar respect for life.''  Commuting death sentences would have even greater significance in the jubilee year, Bishop Fiorenza wrote, referring to Clinton's efforts this  year on debt relief for poor countries. ``Changing a sentence of death to a sentence of life reflects the same spirit,'' he wrote. ``Just as debt relief will save hundreds of thousands of poor people from death by hunger and disease, so too will commutations save the lives of those condemned. The jubilee year is not the time to begin again the execution of those who commit federal crimes.''

Bishop Fiorenza also was among national figures who signed a November letter to Clinton calling for a moratorium because of various problems with how the death penalty is administered.  The 31 men on federal death row were convicted under federal laws, for murders committed by terrorism or under certain anti-drug laws. Seven of those 31 men were convicted for crimes committed while in the military. The last execution by the federal government was in 1963. The Supreme Court suspended the death penalty nationwide in 1972 and allowed it to be reinstated under rewritten statutes beginning in 1976. The first laws carrying the death sentence for federal crimes were passed in 1988.

Another letter to Clinton signed by about 70 religious leaders, including Bishop Fiorenza, Los Angeles Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and Bishop James C. Timlin of Scranton, Pa., noted that ``the overwhelming majority of communities of faith are united in their opposition to the death penalty.''  The Dec. 4 letter also reminded Clinton of the ``shadow'' cast over the U.S. image abroad as one of the few Western countries to still use capital punishment, and of the president's own comments about the ``disturbing racial composition'' of federal death row.

The letter, organized by the Institute on Religion and Public Policy, was signed by representatives of Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, Orthodox and interfaith organizations. In addition to the three bishops, Catholic signers included Sister Helen Prejean, a Sister of St. Joseph of Medaille who is author of the book ``Dead Man Walking''; Frank McNeirney, national coordinator of Catholics Against Capital Punishment; representatives of the Jesuit, Maryknoll and Columban orders; and several individual priests.

Amnesty International and the American Civil Liberties Union also launched campaigns calling on the American public to letters to the White House, encouraging Clinton to declare a moratorium on executions.  In Indiana, the Sisters of Providence of St. Mary-of-the-Woods, whose motherhouse is only a few miles from the Terre Haute prison where Garza was to be executed, placed ads opposing the execution in Indiana diocesan newspapers on behalf of congregations in what is region VII of the
Leadership Conference of Women Religious. ``We believe capital punishment degrades and brutalizes the society which practices it,'' read one ad. ``Therefore, we oppose the use of capital punishment in all cases.''

Another letter to Clinton sent Dec. 4 by more than 600 people of various faiths pleaded for clemency and supervised parole for federal prisoners who have served at least five years for low-level, nonviolent involvement in drug cases.  ``Unconscionably long sentences'' for drug offenses, some lasting 20 years, it said, ``violate human rights and waste scarce resources.''  By forgiving those men and women, it added, Clinton could ``help heal the devastating effects of race and class disparities in our criminal justice system'' and help restore faith in the system.  Among the Catholics who signed that letter were Jesuit Father Robert Drinan, a former member of Congress and law professor at Georgetown University; Msgr. Ralph J. Kuehner, secretary for social concerns at the Washington Archdiocese; Richard Dowling, executive director of the Maryland Catholic Conference; and priests, brothers and nuns in parish, diocesan and prison ministry around the country.

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