Archbishop Chaput welcomes Pennsylvania governor's moratorium on capital punishment

February 16, 2015

Governor Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania has called a moratorium on the use of the death penalty in that state, drawing praise from Philadelphia’s Archbishop Charles Chaput.

Citing that capital punishment “is based on a flawed system that has been proven to be an endless cycle of court proceedings as well as ineffective, unjust and expensive,” Governor Wolf said that he would halt executions until he had received a report from a special task force on the subject.

Archbishop Chaput welcomed the announcement. “Turning away from capital punishment does not diminish our support for the families of murder victims. They bear a terrible burden of grief, and they rightly demand justice,” he said. “But killing the guilty does not honor the dead, nor does it ennoble the living.”

 

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Further information:

• Archbishop Chaput Applauds Pa. Governor for Death-Penalty Halt (National Catholic Register)