Archbishop denounces governor's death penalty proposal

Archbishop Sean O'Malley denounced capital punishment days after Gov. Mitt Romney announced a proposal to restore it, calling the death penalty "state-sponsored violence" in a column written for the Archdiocese of Boston's newspaper, The Pilot.

O'Malley rejected arguments that the death penalty is a deterrent, a justifiable form of punishment and necessary for the protection of society in his column published Friday for the weekly paper.

He also acknowledged that many Catholics support the death penalty but said "Catholic teachings are not based on polls or prevailing sentiments."

O'Malley's stance pits him against Romney, with whom he shared the same view on another religious and political issue: same-sex marriage. Both opposed it.

Romney spokeswoman Shawn Feddeman said "reasonable people can differ on the subject of capital punishment."

"Gov. Romney believes that the worst of the worst murders deserve the death penalty and that, with scientific advances, we can create state-of-the-art safeguards so that only the guilty are punished," Feddeman told The Boston Globe.

Romney's proposal, outlined earlier this week, would require scientific and legal reviews, as well as a "no doubt" standard of jury findings before the execution could take place, as opposed to the usual "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard.

O'Malley never mentioned Romney by name in his column but said the death penalty plan offered nothing new and suggested it could be more of a political distraction.

"The present proposal here in the state of Massachusetts to create a capital punishment system that seeks to be as infallible as humanly possible does not offer any compelling reason to return to a barbaric practice that actually needs to disappear," O'Malley wrote. "Our efforts should be to encourage other states to ban capital punishment and not try to breathe new life into an institution that should end."

O'Malley's position is consistent with that of Pope John Paul II, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and recent Massachusetts bishops. The Catholic Church holds that capital punishment is theoretically justifiable to protect society but currently unnecessary and unacceptable.

In his column, O'Malley said the death penalty was costly, disproportionately imposed against ethnic minorities and the poor and creates a "false sense of security about a complex social problem."

"Nowhere does Jesus offer violence as a solution to set things straight," he wrote.

But many lawmakers said O'Malley's opinions were not likely to strongly affect the outcome of the death penalty debate.

"I think people expect the archbishop to be an opponent of the death penalty," said Rep. James E. Vallen, a Franklin Democrat and co-chairman of the Joint Committee on Criminal Justice.

Vallen and others told the Globe that death penalty dissidents generally consisted of those who oppose it on moral grounds and those who accept it in theory but believe the justice system is too prone to human error.