A Catholic has many reasons to oppose the death penalty and should vote against a November state referendum on it, according to Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann.
McCann, a parishioner of Gesu Parish, spoke Sunday night in front of 40 people in the parish hall. He said he believed the referendum would pass.
"But I'm trying to lessen the margin so it cannot be used as a bludgeon," said McCann, who has been district attorney since 1968. McCann is a leader of NO Death Penalty Wisconsin, an umbrella group comprised of several civil rights organizations, which opposes the referendum.
"I plea that as we near Nov. 7, for those favoring capital punishment to look at the other side," he said.
The referendum will ask voters whether the death penalty should be legalized in cases of first-degree murder that are supported by DNA evidence. The referendum would overturn Wisconsin's 1853 abolishment of the death penalty.
Wisconsin is currently one of 12 states where the death penalty is illegal, said McCann, who after his retirement in January will teach in the Law School.
The prevailing attitude of the Catholic Church toward the death penalty has changed over time. Although the Church did support the policy in the 1950s, it now only favors the death penalty under "sharp" circumstances, McCann said.
Respect for life and forgiveness are both central themes of the Bible and can be applied to the case against the death penalty. While the "eye-for-an-eye" mentality is present in some aspects of the Bible, McCann said he does not believe a person has to murder another as punishment for a crime.
"In my heart, and I ask you to search yours, can you imagine Jesus Christ participating in a hanging?" McCann said. "That is inconceivable to me."
There is an utter finality to capital punishment, and mistakes in capital cases are possible, McCann said. DNA evidence reduces the chance of error, but it does not foreclose all possibilities of such occurrences.
Legal and factual errors in death penalty cases are also substantial, McCann said. One example he cited was the case of Anthony Porter, a Chicagoan whose evidence of innocence in a capital case was found by Northwestern University students two days before he was scheduled to be put to death.
Racism and poverty are both linked disproportionately to the death penalty, McCann said.
"I never came across a case of a rich white man being executed," McCann said. "No matter if we say we won't allow racism (if the death penalty is used) in Wisconsin, it will happen."
The United States is one of the few Western democracies in the world still using capital punishment. Countries such as China and Saudi Arabia are some of the few countries where the death penalty is common, McCann said.
The Rev. Peter Etzel, pastor of Gesu Parish, said McCann's speech deepened his resolve against the death penalty. He said he became firmer in his choice to vote against the upcoming referendum.
"I took away the consideration of whether Christ would ever be part of an execution," Etzel said. "If He is the core of our beliefs, we are against the death penalty."
Marge Melton, music ministry member of Gesu Parish, said she is anti-death penalty and believes the breadth of the issue goes beyond the state level.
"I think (the death penalty) is a moral dilemma, not only in the state, but in the country as well," Melton said.
The speech was sponsored by the church's social ministry committee, of which McCann is a member.