On April 4, at a news conference at the offices of...

On April 4, at a news conference at the offices of the Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, who is chairman of the U.S. Catholic bishops' Domestic Policy Committee, presented a statement calling for an end to capital punishment. "On this Good Friday, a day when we recall our Savior's own execution, we appeal to all people of goodwill, and especially Catholics, to work to end the death penalty," said the statement by the 55-member administrative board of the U.S. Catholic Conference. "We must defend not only innocent human life, as we do in opposing abortion and euthanasia, but the lives of those who may have done evil as well," Cardinal Mahony said.