Ex-Priest and Defense Attorney Uses ‘Pamphlet Power’ Against Death Penalty

A former Catholic priest who left his Jesuit order at age 52 to marry and become a California defense attorney is now retired, at age 69. But Paul Comiskey is still busy, using the "pamphlet power" that helped promote his former law practice to oppose the death penalty, reports the Auburn Journal.

The brochure he co-published, A Taxpayers Guide to the California Death Penalty, seeks to make proponents think about how the ultimate sanction actually works in real life. For example, there have been 45,000 homicides and 13 executions in the state since a tough new law was enacted in 1978, the brochure states. Meanwhile, 44 death row inmates have died of natural causes, 16 committed suicide and another five died of drug overdoses and prison violence.

It can take as much as 30 years before an inmate sentenced to death is actually executed, due to the lengthy appellate process.

“It’s just a cruel hoax,” says Comiskey of the death penalty.