Last week, Kentucky’s Catholic bishops asked Governor Ernie Fletcher to commute the pending death sentence for convicted murderer Ralph Baze.

Fletcher has signed a death warrant for Baze, who is scheduled to be executed Sept. 25 at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville, Ky. Archbishop of Louisville Joseph E. Kurtz and Bishop Ronald W. Gainer of the Diocese of Lexington met with the governor on Sept. 7 to urge clemency for Baze and for Marco Chapman, a Northern Kentucky man who is also on death row.

And while the governor made no promises to the two Catholic leaders, Archbishop Kurtz said the meeting was warm and cordial and allowed for “a fair and open exchange of ideas.” In their 25-minute meeting, they urged the governor to commute the sentences of Baze and Chapman to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

“Bishop Gainer and I were able to clearly make the distinction between the authority the state has to protect its citizens and to hold people accountable for appropriate behavior,” and the governor’s authority to use capital punishment, the archbishop said.

“However, while we recognize the governor has the legal authority to exercise the death penalty,” he added, “we don’t agree on the exercising of that authority.”

Archbishop Kurtz said he, Bishop Gainer and the governor “spent a good deal of time” discussing the morality surrounding capital punishment, and said they noted the distinction between the “intrinsic evil of ever taking innocent life and the different analysis that we in the church have concerning the death penalty.”

“In the church we have concluded that in the U.S. we have options that protect the public and hold people accountable for their actions,” he explained. “Therefore, we do not believe the death penalty is appropriate.”

The archbishop also noted that Fletcher was appreciative that the bishops “had a chance to share our deep concerns for the victims of crimes.”

“We were able to tell him that we were aware of the hardships placed on families because of some of the crimes involved in these cases,” he said. “But when all is said and done, we do not believe that the taking of a life will end a cycle of violence.”

On the same day that the Catholic leaders met with the governor, public defenders representing Baze gave a written plea for clemency to Fletcher. In that plea, the lawyers told the governor that the jury that sentenced Baze to die was lied to by a prosecutor and did not hear testimony that would have supported Baze’s claim of self-defense.

Archbishop Kurtz and Bishop Gainer also presented the governor with a letter signed by all four of the state’s Catholic bishops. Bishop John J. McRaith of Owensboro and Bishop Roger J. Foys of Covington were unable to attend the Sept. 7 meeting in Frankfort.

Baze was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1992 shooting deaths of Powell County Sheriff Steve Bennett and one of his deputies, Arthur Briscoe. Chapman is on death row for the 2002 rape and murder of Carolyn Marksberry and for the stabbing deaths of two of her three children. The third child survived the attack.

Edward Monahan, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Kentucky, the public policy arm of the state’s bishops, accompanied Archbishop Kurtz and Bishop Gainer to the governor’s office but did not attend the meeting.

In the letter to Fletcher, the state’s bishops told the governor that, as Catholic bishops, they believe “the death penalty is unnecessary and unjustified in our time and circumstances.”

“In particular, we ask that you commute the death sentences of Ralph Baze and Marco Chapman to life without parole,” the letter said. “This sentence will honor the principle of the sacredness of human life while holding these men accountable for their behavior and insuring the safety of our communities.”

Monahan also noted that as of Sept. 8 nearly 1,500 people had signed a “Not in Our Name” petition asking the governor to commute the death sentence for Baze.

“My understanding is that (Baze’s) public defenders are seeking a stay of execution so that the courts can review problems with the way lethal injection is conducted in Kentucky,” Monahan said. “There are two or three other cases before federal District Court Judge Karen Caldwell, and that issue is also being considered by the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Monahan also said he and Father Patrick Delahanty, chair of the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and associate director of the Catholic conference, were encouraged by the recent decision by Texas Gov. Rick Perry to commute a death sentence in that state.

“I’d hope that Gov. Fletcher would be influenced by that decision by another chief executive,” Monahan said. “We think there is a growing awareness about the serious problems with the application of the death penalty in the U.S.”