This commentary is by Tom Dalton of Essex Junction, executive director of Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform. He is an attorney and a licensed alcohol and drug counselor.
Pope Francis, who died on April 21 at the age of 88, often visited prisons where he spoke with the imprisoned and washed their feet. He was setting an example of humility and service, as Jesus did when he washed the feet of his disciples. And he was offering those who have done wrong — all of us — an outward symbol of our universal potential for spiritual cleansing and redemption.
Notably, he didn’t limit this potential for redemption to “misdemeanors” or “non-violent offenses.” He did not exempt violent crimes or other listed offenses from the possibility of rehabilitation and second chances. He taught that it is immoral and wrong to simply lock people up and throw away the key, even for the most serious crimes.
Pope Francis said the death penalty “does not constitute a deterrent, nor render justice to victims, but only fuels the thirst for vengeance.” In 2018, Pope Francis revised the Catechism of the Catholic Church to declare the death penalty unacceptable under all circumstances. He called for the abolition of the death penalty worldwide.
Pope Francis also condemned life imprisonment, describing it as a “hidden death penalty” that wrongly deprives people of hope. He emphasized the importance of hope and rehabilitation within the criminal legal system. He said that “no one can change their life if they don’t see a horizon.”
Pope Francis said that God will judge us on how we treat justice-involved people.
Vermont abolished the death penalty in 1972. In 2020, the Vermont Senate passed legislation eliminating sentences of life without the possibility of parole for all crimes except aggravated murder. That bill was championed by the long-time Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the late Senator Dick Sears, and by the current Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth. The bill was sidelined by the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic before it could be considered by the Vermont House of Representatives.
Life sentences and life without parole sentences often bear the stain of racial bias. Sentences of life without any possibility of parole effectively take the lives of more Black men, women and youth across the United States than deaths at the hands of police or via capital punishment combined. If we want social justice, we must address this issue. And as Pope Francis himself pointed out, our knowledge about wrongful convictions, revealed by advances in DNA testing, makes use of this kind of extreme sentence especially problematic.
The moral leadership of our faith leaders, the statistical evidence relating to racial bias in sentencing, the DNA evidence relating to wrongful convictions and our understanding of the human capacity for change should alert us the critical importance of building in opportunities for parole consideration or other “second look” mechanisms — especially in life sentences. After an individual has paid a significant penalty for the harm they caused by serving decades of incarceration, we should give that individual and their case another look to determine how best to serve the interests of justice going forward.
Pope Francis called on all of us to bring mercy, dignity and humanity to our criminal legal systems. We can help honor his life, his work and his memory by heeding the call.
