Today -100: March 7, 1911: Of Catholic schools and the death penalty

Catholic bishops in the US announce, in obedience to a 13th-century papal law, that henceforth no absolution will be given to parents who fail to send their children to Catholic schools.

Joseph Cooney of San Francisco murdered his cousin. The next day, he went to observe the California State Assembly as it debated capital punishment; “He showed great anxiety while the vote was being taken.” The vote was 46 to 31 to abolish the death penalty, so Cooney immediately turned himself in to the San Francisco sheriff, who was in Sacramento in his other capacity as a state senator.