Archbishop: Death penalty fails
to bring closure

By Mary Ann Wyand

More than 35 state legislators heard Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein and two prison chaplains explain why the Catholic Church opposes capital punishment during a Jan. 12 luncheon sponsored by the Indiana Catholic Conference in downtown Indianapolis.

Archbishop Buechlein was joined by Holy Cross Father Thomas McNally, who is in residence at St. Adalbert Parish in South Bend, Ind., and Deacon Malcolm Lunsford of Merrillville, who minister as chaplains at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, Ind.

Archbishop Buechlein told the legislators that the Catholic Church cares about convicted murderers incarcerated on death row in state and federal prisons because Jesus—who founded the Church more than 2,000 years ago and served a brief time in prison in Jerusalem—preached the Gospel of reconciliation and mercy.

“That’s my starting point for reaching out to those condemned to die at the hands of the government, be that federal or state,” the archbishop said. “I have come to know several of the men on death row at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute. You may or may not recall that I received one of them into the Catholic Church. I gave the sacrament of confirmation to a second man on death row, and I have prayed with several others who are there.”

Archbishop Buechlein said he believes “these men and others on death row are and were truly trying to be repentant.”

He said this brings to mind questions in his own heart about what good is being accomplished or can be accomplished by executing people who are repentant or by executing those who are not repentant, thus depriving them of the possibility of remorse.

“The Church does not question in principle the state’s right to impose the death penalty in order to protect its citizens,” the archbishop said, “but the Church does not believe that this right needs to be exercised at this time because the state has at its disposal an alternative way to protect society—that is, life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.”

After meeting some of the men incarcerated on the federal death row at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, the archbishop said he believes the death penalty does more harm than good.

“I think the death penalty feeds a frenzy for revenge while giving no demonstrable proof that we are deterring violence,” he said. “Revenge does not liberate the family of victims nor does it ennoble the victims of crime. Only forgiveness liberates.”

Society must never forget the victims of crime and their bereaved loved ones, he said, but “I think a truly honorable memorial to victims of violent crime is to choose life rather than death.”

Deacon Lunsford, a permanent deacon of the Diocese of Gary, said Gary Bishop Dale J. Melczek asked him to minister to offenders at the state prison nearly six years ago.

“I spend a good deal of time on death row and I know every man there,” Deacon Lunsford said. “I’ve known every man that has been executed in the state since mid-2000, and this includes Harley Roach, who hung himself on [Jan. 10] to avoid the death penalty.”

Deacon Lunsford said he brings Communion to all the Catholic men on death row and also is available to listen to and talk with any inmate regardless of their religion.

“When Gregory Scott Johnson was executed last May, I was with him as was Father McNally,” he said. “It hurt because, as I told his family at the funeral in Anderson, Greg was not the same person that we killed who did the crime some 20 years previously. Killing Greg solved nothing. The victim’s family members are still angry, and they will never have any closure. The only way you can have closure, I am convinced, is through forgiveness.”

To consider the true cost of the death penalty, Deacon Lunsford said, people must also remember the hardship that it places on the offender’s family as well as Department of Corrections employees and other inmates.

“In dollars and cents, it’s much more reasonable and much less expensive to house a person for the rest of his life than it is to execute him,” he said, citing the Access Indiana Web page link to the Department of Corrections.

“Anger is self-fulfilling,” he said. “It feeds on itself and continues to grow.”

The state executed five men last year, Deacon Lunsford said. “I can tell you that on the day of an execution and the days leading up to it, there’s an unnatural sense of quietness [in the prison]. Some corrections officers would come to me and ask me to pray with them to help them through this period. These are good people. They’re just doing their jobs. Many of them do not support the death penalty, but they’re reluctant to talk about it to anyone other than clergy.”

Deacon Lunsford said the U.S. joins China and Iran on the list of countries that still administer the death penalty.

“Within the United States, only about 30 states still use the death penalty,” he said. “New Jersey just voted a moratorium against it. It’s time for us to take another look at what we do in Indiana. We need to take a serious look at life imprisonment without the possibility of parole as a replacement for the death penalty. There are men in prison living useful lives behind bars, and for those who cannot adjust, … there are lock-down units where they can be controlled.”

Father McNally, who has ministered as a volunteer chaplain at the state prison for three years, said he celebrates Masses for the inmates and visits offenders who are incarcerated in lock-down units.

“Indeed, they have committed terrible crimes,” Father McNally said. “I have the utmost sympathy for the families of their victims, but the men on death row are not monsters. They are human beings entitled to our concern and, yes, love because they are the precious children of their Creator.”

Father McNally said he spent time with three death row inmates immediately before their execution and witnessed two executions.

“In all three cases,” he said, “the men have shown not only courage in the face of their impending death, but obvious signs of repentance for what they have done. During their long years on death row, they have more than enough time for conversion of heart, and many experience exactly that.” †