Anti-death penalty activists celebrate 200th death row exoneree: ‘Undoubtedly optimistic’

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CNA Staff, Jul 17, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Opponents of the death penalty in the United States are celebrating a milestone as the country marks the 200th death row exoneree in roughly 50 years and more states continue to abolish capital punishment. 

Catholic Mobilizing Network (CMN), which advocates ending capital punishment in the U.S., said in a press release this month that California prisoner Larry Roberts had become “the 200th death row exoneration since 1973.” Roberts had been on death row since 1983 after his fellow prisoners claimed he killed both a prison guard and another inmate. 

CMN Executive Director Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy said in the press release that the 200 exonerations were the result of “the tireless efforts of faithful advocates and committed lawyers.”

Exonerations, according to CMN, are cases involving former death row inmates who have, since 1973, either been acquitted of all charges related to the crime that placed them on death row or had all charges related to the crime that placed them on death row dismissed by the prosecution. It also includes prisoners who have been granted a complete pardon based on evidence of innocence.

“[W]hile we praise God that these lives have been spared, we also remember the many individuals — both innocent and guilty — who did not, and will not receive the same grace, whose lives are discarded by a system determined to throw them away,” she said. 

Murphy told CNA in a phone interview that the hundreds of exonerations are “a significant indicator of the brokenness of the death penalty.”

‘The trends are moving in our favor’

On its website CMN says it plays “a central role in state and federal repeal campaigns, collaborating closely with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, state Catholic conferences, local dioceses, religious communities, and secular abolition groups.”

The group helps spearhead “prayer vigils, press events, webinars, and speaking tours” against the death penalty; it also works at “connecting key players, like Church leaders and abolition movement organizers.”

Asked if the anti-capital punishment movement is optimistic about its efforts, Murphy said: “Undoubtedly.” 

She pointed out that nearly half of all U.S. states, as well as the District of Columbia, have abolished the death penalty. 

“The trends are moving in our favor,” she said. “The use of the death penalty is decreasing, as are the people being sentenced to death. The repeals are much more bipartisan than they’ve ever been.” 

“I think Americans are getting less and less tolerant of this practice,” she said. “For all these reasons we’re continually encouraged.”

Among the groups with which CMN has partnered against the death penalty include Witness to Innocence, which works “to empower exonerated death row survivors to be the most powerful and effective voice in the fight to end the death penalty and reform the justice system in the United States.”

Herman Lindsey, the executive director of Witness to Innocence, was sentenced to death in Florida in 2006 for murder. The state Supreme Court subsequently exonerated him in 2009, ruling that Florida “had failed to produce any evidence in this case placing Lindsey at the scene of the crime at the time of the murder.”

Lindsey told CNA in a phone interview that Witness to Innocence offers exonerees — many of whom have trouble finding work — a chance for employment while speaking out against capital punishment. 

“We run a lot of campaigns at one time,” he said. “We’re involved in a lot of cases. We work with each and every state, and with attorneys on the cases.” 

“If it’s a case that’s out there, most likely we’re active in it in some type of way, somehow,” he said. 

Murphy said there are “exciting things on the horizon for Catholics to help us mobilize and speak on this issue more effectively.” 

“We’ve got Oct. 10 coming up, the World Day Against the Death Penalty,” she said. She praised Pope Francis for making it “explicit” that Catholics should work against the death penalty in the upcoming Jubilee Year of 2025.

The death penalty “is at odds with the Christian faith and eliminates all hope of forgiveness and rehabilitation,” Murphy said. “We should be thinking and acting on this issue in the Jubilee Year.”

Both Lindsey and Murphy expressed happiness at the milestone 200th exoneration while lamenting the need for those exonerations at all. 

“It’s a great thing, but it’s a bad thing, that we reached the 200 mark,” Lindsey said. “But the good thing about it is it shows that organizations and attorneys are working hard.”

Murphy, meanwhile, said she was “delighted that there has been success in more cases to get people off of death row.” 

“But at the same time, it’s also sad that so many people have had to go through that, where they’re sentenced to death and then exonerated,” she said. “Can you imagine that?”