Catholic bishops urge Missouri rulers to end executions

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The leaders of the four Catholic dioceses of Missouri are urging state leaders to end the application of the death penalty, after the execution of a murderer convicted for three people despite a request for clemency from the pope.

Ernest Johnson was executed Tuesday evening, the first execution in Missouri in 16 months and the seventh in the United States this year. Johnson, 61, admitted to killing convenience store workers Mary Bratcher, Mabel Scruggs and Fred Jones during a closing robbery in Columbia in 1994.

In a letter last week asking Republican Governor Mike Parson to grant clemency, a representative of Pope Francis wrote that the Pope “wishes to put before you the simple fact of Mr. Johnson’s humanity and the sanctity of all human life.” Parson, a Baptist, refused to intervene.

On Wednesday, a statement signed by Archbishop of St. Louis Mitchell Rozanski, Kansas City-St. Bishop Joseph James Johnston Jr., Bishop of Jefferson City Shawn McKnight and Bishop of Springfield-Cape Girardeau Edward Rice have expressed disappointment with Parson’s decision.

“Ernest Lee Johnson’s crimes were heinous and deserve to be punished, but as Missouri has proven to be a pro-life state, we should stop using the death penalty as a means of dealing with violent crime.” , indicates the press release.

Johnson’s attorneys have said in the clemency petition and court records that repeated IQ tests show Johnson to be intellectually disabled and his execution would violate the U.S. Constitution. He also suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome and lost a significant amount of brain tissue when a benign tumor was removed in 2008.

The bishops’ statement said that the use of the death penalty “does not make Missouri a safer or more civil state,” but “degrades us as a society and teaches our children that violence is the appropriate response to. violence “.

A spokeswoman for Parson declined to comment on Thursday.

Catholic leaders made a similar demand to end Missouri executions to the government of the day. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, in 2013 after convicted killer Andre Cole was put to death. Nixon, a Methodist, did not stop the executions – 21 were carried out in his eight years in office. Three men have been executed since Parson became governor in June 2018.

During his visit to St. Louis in 1999, Pope John Paul II persuaded Democratic Governor Mel Carnahan to grant clemency to Darrell Mease, who was awaiting execution for killing three people.

In 2018, Pope Francis changed the teaching of the Church to say that capital punishment can never be sanctioned because it constitutes an “attack” on human dignity.

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