Many Catholics equate supporting the death penalty with supporting abortion. I don't get it since one is the taking of a very few lives of convicted murderers and one is the taking of tens of millions of innocent lives. I think that they just use this as an excuse to soothe their consciences when what they really want to support is the "social justice" (aka socialism) policies of the left.
Ted Turner made a multi-part series about the cold war a few years ago. It contained the comparison "They had the gulag; we had Kent State." I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't being shown in our schools brainwashing America's youth into thinking that we are an evil country....infuriating