OKLAHOMA
Inmate gets temporary reprieve from execution
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt gave another temporary reprieve to death-row inmate Richard Glossip, moving back his execution scheduled for Dec. 8 until next February while an appeals court reviews his claims of innocence. After the Nov. 3 announcement, Sister Helen Prejean, a Sister of St. Joseph and longtime advocate against the death penalty, tweeted that she was grateful to the governor “for his measured action and to the 62 Oklahoma legislators supporting Richard’s request for an evidentiary hearing.” Glossip, a 59-year-old former motel manager, has been on death row for more than 25 years, convicted for the 1997 murder of his boss, Barry Alan Van Treese, at the Best Budget Inn in Oklahoma City. This past summer, a Houston law firm’s report supported Glossip’s innocence claims, something that advocates, including Sister Prejean, have long emphasized.
INDIANA
New abortion law passes ‘constitutional litmus test,’ says brief
The Thomas More Society, a not-for-profit, national public interest law firm based in Chicago, has submitted an amicus curiae, or friend-of-the-court brief, to the Indiana Supreme Court supporting the state in a suit that challenges its recently passed abortion law. The lawsuit was filed Aug. 30 by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Planned Parenthood Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky Inc., et al. It claims the new law protecting most unborn lives violates rights, privileges and protections granted in the state’s constitution. The law in question was enacted by the Indiana General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. Eric Holcomb Aug. 5. It bans most abortions except in cases of rape, incest and specific medical conditions.
ETHIOPIA
Cardinal says he hopes peace agreement will end war
Ethiopian Cardinal Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel has welcomed a peace agreement that the government and Tigray forces signed to end the war in the country’s northern region. After 10 days of talks in South Africa, the two sides signed the pact Nov. 2, after nearly two years of conflict. But on the opposite end of the continent, in Ethiopia’s semi-autonomous region of Tigray, the guns were still firing amid an escalating humanitarian crisis. “We hope the agreement … will lead our peoples toward unity and peace,” Cardinal Souraphiel, the archbishop of Addis Ababa, said in a brief statement. The agreement includes a permanent cease-fire. It also mandates the government to provide humanitarian aid — in collaboration with humanitarian agencies — and facilitate the return and integration of refugees and people displaced within Ethiopia.
CONGO
Bishop urges government to take control in the East
A Catholic bishop in Congo warned of a loss of government control over parts of the country, three months ahead of a projected visit by Pope Francis. “We call on the government to restore sovereign power over this part of our national territory and ensure peace and security for its population — while swiftly providing humanitarian assistance to victims and allowing displaced people to return,” said Bishop Placide Lubamba Ndjibu of Kasongo. The bishop circulated the appeal as Kenyan troops were deployed Nov. 2 as part of an East African regional force in eastern Congo in a fresh bid to end violence by rival militia groups that has disrupted living conditions, agricultural supplies and basic services. Pope Francis told African students in a Nov. 1 webinar he hoped to visit Congo and neighboring South Sudan in February, after postponing a planned July 2-7 visit because of health problems.