We must ask ourselves whether executing people on death row is truly a matter of public safety or merely a state-sanctioned tool for exacting the public’s demand for revenge.

Last year, Pope Francis said, “There can be no stepping back" from the church’s opposition to the death penalty. It is time to put this teaching into action and stop executions in the United States for good.

God who is justice, let the systems of justice we build on earth reflect your love for all creation. Let them value redemption over punishment, future over past, life over death.

Pope Francis has joined the chorus of people calling on Missouri Gov. Mike Parson to grant clemency to a death row inmate who is set to be executed for killing three people during a 1994 convenience store robbery.

Activists who oppose the death penalty said the Justice Department’s temporary stop of federal executions is a step in the right direction — but not enough.

The Justice Department is halting federal executions after a historic use of capital punishment by the Trump administration, which carried out 13 executions in six months.