Top Vatican official appeals for life of Texas death-row inmate

Published: 2007-09-07

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A top Vatican official appealed for the life of a death-row inmate whose execution was scheduled for Sept. 13 in Texas. Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, urged Texas government authorities Sept. 7 to commute the death sentence of Joseph Lave. Lave, 42, has been on death row for 13 years. He was convicted of the brutal murders in 1992 of two 18-year-old store clerks, Frederick Banzhaf and Justin Marquart. During a Sept. 5-12 international meeting in Rome on the pastoral care of prisoners, Cardinal Martino asked for Lave's life "to be saved or at least for a stay of execution," said a release from the justice and peace council. The cardinal called the death penalty an inhumane and ineffective form of punishment that also "impoverishes the society that legitimizes and practices it," the release said.

Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .