The execution of 76-year-old Clarence Ray Allen in California Jan. 17 "undermines society's commitment to respect the God-given dignity of every human person" and fails to meet its purported goal of making society safer, according to the head of the San Francisco Archdiocese.
Auxiliary Bishop John C. Wester, apostolic administrator of the archdiocese until Archbishop George H. Niederauer is installed Feb. 15, said that because of Allen's age and various illnesses "life in prison without the possibility of parole would have been a just and exacting punishment."
"We must ask ourselves and our fellow citizens whether the violence of state-ordered executions ... does not itself contribute to a culture of death in which respect for the dignity and precious worth of every human life is diminished," Bishop Wester said in a statement.
He also asked Californians "to ponder carefully whether the use of the death penalty makes our society safer."
"A moratorium is needed to evaluate whether the death penalty serves the common good and safeguards the dignity of human life," the bishop added. "I am convinced that it does not."
Allen, who suffered from diabetes and advanced heart disease, was confined to a wheelchair and nearly blind and deaf.
While serving a life sentence at Folsom State Prison for the 1974 murder of his son's teenage girlfriend, he was sentenced to death in 1982 after being convicted of hiring a hit man who killed a witness to the 1974 slaying and two bystanders in 1980.
Saying that "we must acknowledge and respect the pain and sorrow" of the family and friends of the four victims, Bishop Wester said they, Allen's family and the Native American community were in his thoughts and prayers. Allen was a Choctaw Indian.
"The state has a right to require punishment for heinous acts and it has the duty to protect the community from further acts of violence," the bishop said.
But he quoted the late Pope John Paul II, who said during a 1999 visit to St. Louis: "A sign of hope is the increasing recognition that the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil. Modern society has the means of protecting itself, without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform."
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger denied Allen's appeal for clemency Jan. 13, and the U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay of execution Jan. 16.
The family of Josephine Rocha, one of the victims, said in a statement after Allen's execution that "justice has prevailed today."
Allen "abused the justice system with endless appeals until he lived longer in prison than the short 17 years of Josephine's life," the statement said. ---CNS |