Death Penalty

Lebanon’s parliament Tuesday abolished the death penalty, making it the first country in the Arab world to replace the sentencing with life imprisonment with aggravated hard labor, according to the AP.

Aggravated hard labor is already written into Lebanese law but has rarely been implemented in recent years. The country's financial crisis and overcrowded prisons have limited the authorities' resources and capacity.

The Trump administration announced Friday that it will authorize firing squads as a federally permitted method of execution, deepening its push to revive the death penalty and drawing a stark contrast with Pope Leo XIV and Catholic teaching. Within hours of the Justice Department’s announcement, the first pontiff from the United States the death penalty as an affront to human dignity.