In March of 1995, Pope John Paul II further proscribed the use of the death penalty in his encyclical letter on The Gospel of Life. The Holy Father acknowledged that references to capital punishment can be found in selected passages of the Old Testament. We note that our state has not executed anyone in over 140 years, the longest any state has gone without doing so. During that period, Wisconsin's crime rate has consistently remained below the national average and far below many of the states that execute people most frequently. It is also a fact that our state's criminal justice system is among the nation's best.
Few prisoners escape and almost all have been caught before they can commit a violent crime.
Wisconsin prison guards are almost never killed by prisoners. Judicial sentencing practices continue to change to assure that violent criminals will serve very long sentences. Convicted murderers are increasingly likely to remain incarcerated until old age or death. Proposals to limit the death penalty to certain crimes, such as those against children, do not make it acceptable. Such selectivity is contrary to our belief that all life is sacred.