November 18, 1974

1. Early in the November 1974, NCCB meeting, the Social Development and World Peace subcommittee, headed by Bishop Ernest Unterfoefler, of Charleston, South Carolina, submitted a Statement opposing capital punishment, which was even then being discussed on the national level. The seven-page Statement was rejected as inadequate in expressing the reasons for the bishops' opposition by a vote of one hundred nineteen to one hundred three with three abstentions on November 19, 1974.

2. That same afternoon, Bishop John May, of Mobile, Alabama, proposed a brief resolution which said simply: "The U.S. Catholic Conference goes on record in opposition to capital punishment." Presiding Cardinal Krol at first ruled that a resolution also needed a two-thirds vote, but Bishop May said he offered a simple motion which needed only a majority vote. The motion was accepted by a vote of one hundred eight to sixty-three.

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