Another Conservative Against the Death Penalty

There are actually quite a few. Funny it seems there are a lot more prominent Pro-Life conservatives that are anti Death Penalty than is often portrayed

From National Review Online We Have Kathryn Jean Lopez

Death Be Not Proud [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
Even worse than the state's killing of a man it is not morally obliged to kill (I appreciate the arguments, but I'm opposed to the death penalty) may be finding out he may have been innocent of the crimes he was convicted of. This may have been the case with Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in Texas in 2004.
UPDATE: Readers point me to his parting message, which included an obscene gesture. These things, too, do not require the state to end his life.
08/31 04:16 PMShare .

and

this

re: Cameron Todd Willingham [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
A (current) judge who helped prosecute the case takes issue with the innocence claim.
I should note that the debate over facts is not my moral argument against the whole execution business. I think the man shouldn't have been killed, period, with or without the New Yorker. Capital punishment isn't intrinsically evil, there are times when it may be necessary. But those strike me as rare — if not inconceivable — instances in the U.S. in 2009.Speaking of George Will, Ramesh wrote this response to him when he announced his opposition to capital punishment.
08/31 06:39 PMShare

Emphasis and bold all mine. What I bolded seems very close to what the Catechism says.