Remember those executed by the state

So much is happening right now — global pandemic, spurious election fraud claims, Russian hacking of U.S. computer systems, presidential transition appointments and more — that it’s easy to remain unaware of even significant events.

In 2020, the U.S. government executed 10 people, the most since President Grover Cleveland’s second term in 1896. Until this state-sanctioned killing spree, there had been no federal executions since 2003. This is not a record of which to be proud. In 2020, the federal government executed more people than all 50 states, where seven executions were carried out. In a bit of good news, the state number is a 37-year low. Colorado became the 22nd state in the union to outlaw the death penalty for state crimes; New Mexico was the 15th in 2009.

In total, fewer death sentences — 18 — were imposed in 2020, another low since the Supreme Court struck down existing U.S. capital punishment statutes in 1972. That’s due in part to fewer jury trials because of coronavirus pandemic precautions.

All this paints a picture of a United States that simultaneously is becoming more humane — fewer death sentences and state executions — yet crueler at the federal level, with top officials racing to carry out executions before a new presidential administration can take control.

This, despite a pandemic that made gatherings ill-advised because of the potential of spreading the coronavirus. In fact, a COVID-19 outbreak at an Indiana federal prison in the fall is linked to an execution there; two inmates died as a result and more than 40 inmates tested positive.

All of this happening against a political backdrop in which politicians clash over who is “pro-life” and who isn’t, with religion entering the political arena as a battle standard.

The Roman Catholic Church, of course, is famously pro-life, espousing a seamless garment of support for life beginning at conception through natural death.

It’s ironic, though, that after the first round of executions, outgoing Attorney General William Barr was given the Christifideles Laici Award (faithful Christian laity) at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast. It’s an award to Catholics “who serve the Church so well.” And Catholic Supreme

Court justices, with the exception of Sonia Sotomayor, also do not appear concerned that their church opposes the death penalty as they refuse to stay executions.

In the words of Catholic leader Pope Francis, the death penalty goes “against the inviolability of life and the dignity of the human person, which contradicts God’s plan for man and society.”

In October, the pope declared in a papal encyclical, “Fratelli Tutti,” or “All Brothers.” In it, he wrote, “Today we state clearly that ‘the death penalty is inadmissible’ and the church is firmly committed to calling for its abolition worldwide.”

President-elect Joe Biden, a faithful Massgoer and only the second Catholic to be elected president, has promised to abolish the federal death penalty.

While criticized for supporting the legality of abortion — while opposing it personally — Biden receives little credit from right-to-lifers for his principled stand on the death penalty.

It’s not just the cruelty of state-sanctioned murder that must be called out; the death penalty process is weighted against the poor, people of color and defendants with inadequate representation. Justice is hardly fair or color blind. Innocent people sometimes are sentenced to death, an irreversible mistake for which there can be no return.

In 2020, the Death Penalty Information Project reported five inmates on death row were cleared, meaning they were innocent of the crimes for which they were accused. Since 1973, there have been 172 documented cases of death-row inmates being exonerated. Carrying out a death-penalty sentence means some innocent people will be killed at the hands of the state.

But none of that mattered to an administration bent on putting federal prisoners to death, a process that is continuing during the transition between presidents.

The Trump administration carried out the first lame-duck federal execution in more than a century, and continues to schedule others during the transition period before Biden takes office. Three additional executions are scheduled in January before the new president is sworn in.

It’s another sad note in a dark year, but one citizens should acknowledge, mourn and seek to change in what surely will be a better time ahead.