The eyes of the country — and the world — were on Texas last week, but it was not because of a celebratory event.

Rather, on Aug. 22 Texas had its 400th execution since the death penalty was reinstituted in the United States in 1976. What has brought Texas such notoriety is that it leads all U.S. states in executions. In fact, when Texas reached the 400-death milestone, the closest states in executions since 1976 were Virginia with 98 and Oklahoma with 86, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Before the Texas execution, the European Union — which has abolished capital punishment — expressed “great regret” about the 400th execution and appealed to Texas Gov. Rick Perry to halt all executions and to consider a moratorium in the state.

The European Union statement said: “We believe that elimination of the death penalty is fundamental to the protection of human dignity and to the progressive development of human rights. We further consider this punishment to be cruel and inhuman.”

The European Union added that there is no evidence that the death penalty is a “deterrent against violent crime,” and the “irreversibility of the punishment means that miscarriages of justice, which are inevitable in all legal systems, cannot be re-addressed.”

Perry rejected the appeal, suggesting the European Union was out of line interfering in Texas’ affairs.

“Two hundred and 30 years ago, our forefathers fought a war to throw off the yoke of a European monarch and gain the freedom of self-determination,” said a statement by Robert Black, spokesman for Perry. “Texas long ago decided that the death penalty is a just and appropriate punishment for the most heinous crimes committed against our citizens.”

And the governor’s spokesman added, “While we respect our friends in Europe, welcome their investment in our state and appreciate their interest in our laws, Texans are doing just fine governing Texas.”

The attitude of the Texas government obviously is not shared by everyone in the state. Several years ago the Catholic bishops of Texas called on citizens and elected officials to “reject the violence of the death penalty” and to replace it with “non-lethal means” of punishment sufficient to protect society from violent offenders. Texas does have such non-lethal means: life in prison without parole.

While the Texas government might be confident that the death penalty is “just and appropriate,” many others are not so certain. A June poll by RT Strategies, commissioned by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), showed that public confidence in capital punishment has eroded in the United States over the past decade.

“People are deeply concerned about the risk of executing the innocent, about the fairness of the process and about the inability of capital punishment to accomplish its basic purposes,” the DPIC study said. “Life without parole sentences are becoming more attractive to many Americans.”

Sixty percent of the respondents in the poll believed the death penalty was not a deterrent to crime, and 58 percent thought it was time for a moratorium on executions while the system undergoes a review.

Several recent polls have shown that while a majority still support the death penalty, this support is not as strong as it once was. Also, a growing number of people favor life in prison without parole as an option to capital punishment.

About six weeks before Texas had its 400th execution, South Dakota had its first execution in almost 60 years. South Dakota’s two bishops, Blase J. Cupich of Rapid City and Paul J. Swain of Sioux Falls, spoke out against it. And what they said deserves reflection.

“The state-sponsored death of any man or woman does a disservice to those people who have defended the dignity of human life against the many threats in our time,” they said. “It only adds to the cycle of violence, which continues to erode respect for human life ... (and) terminates the possibility for conversion and rehabilitation, for the state has an obligation to allow every opportunity.”

The state can hold accountable those who commit horrific crimes “in a way that teaches the sacredness of all persons gifted by God with life,” the bishops said. “We have had enough violence in our society. The death penalty only adds more.”

How many more executions will it take for us to realize this reality?