Does Death Penalty Preclude Opportunity for Repentance?

No, in fact the death penalty has historically done just the opposite for those guilty and convicted of grave crimes.

In part, the Church has long affirmed the death penalty’s moral permissibility—or social application or implementation—because it could serve as a spiritual sobriety checkpoint for someone facing imminent death, providing a convicted murderer the opportunity to reflect and repent. In the process, the social application of the death penalty has served to affirm the dignity of the convicted criminal in particular and humanity in general, reminding all concerned that our time on earth is fleeting and so we need to be ready to meet the Good Lord at our particular judgment, whenever it may come (CCC 1021-22). The convicted murder in particular has been reminded that, as a human person made in God’s image and likeness (Gen. 1:26-27), he had the God-given free will to recognize his grave wrongdoing and thus convert in anticipation of his imminent execution.

For more on the death penalty, see these articles by Tom Nash, Jimmy Akin and Edward Peters.