Death Penalty Focus mourns Board Member Father Chris Ponnet (1957–2025), steadfast abolition advocate. Ordained in 1983, he pastored St. Camillus and led spiritual care at LAC+USC. We loved him and share this grief. May his witness deepen our resolve.
“If you support the death penalty because you think [victim's families] are ever going to be healed by the murder of another person, that isn't healing, that's revenge.”
DPF board member Beth Webb explains why she opposes the death penalty.
The California Committee on Revision of the Penal Code’s recommendation to eliminate the death penalty is so significant that, “ When the story is told about how the death penalty was abolished in California, the work of a little-known legislative committee will deserve an entire chapter,” DPF board member Stephen Rohde declares.
Two prominent voices, one a former Democratic US senator, the other a former Republican-appointed US attorney, call on President Biden to commute all federal death sentences, writing that “the death penalty . . . is no longer the polarizing issue it once was.”
I’m grateful to Death Penalty Focus and other organizations, religious and secular, that are faithfully keeping my hope alive. The arc of justice bends slowly — and can sometimes be deflected — but continues to bend toward justice… and mercy.
I believe nobody has the right to take anyone’s life no matter the crime. I believe in redemption & mercy and yes, re integration into society if at all possible.
I’m grateful to Death Penalty Focus and other organizations, religious and secular, that are faithfully keeping my hope alive. The arc of justice bends slowly — and can sometimes be deflected — but continues to bend toward justice… and mercy.
