|
A culture of
life and the penalty of death
PRAISED BE JESUS
CHRIST!
(Now and Forever)
Buried in Lafayette’s local newspaper some weeks back was a brief report
about the incidence of capital punishment. It stated that more people
were put to death last year than in either of the previous two years.
The story went on to say that while countries are increasingly
renouncing the death penalty, the overall number of executions rose
because more nations that have capital punishment on their books
actually used it in 2006. The story claimed that 5,628 people were
executed worldwide in 2006.
It was noteworthy that the story carried a Rome dateline. Italy, as well
as most of Europe, does not have the death penalty. Each time a person
is executed, there is a candle-light vigil at the coliseum in Rome. As a
generalization, Europeans cannot understand how the United States, with
its insistence on human rights, can continue to utilize capital
punishment, something they consider barbaric.
Twenty-five years ago, the bishops of the United States first called for
an end to the death penalty. This call has been renewed on a regular
basis right up to the present time. It is Catholic teaching that the
death penalty is unnecessary and unjustified in our time and
circumstances.
Here is the argument in summary form:
• State executions, when they are not necessary to protect society,
violate respect for human life and dignity;
• State-sanctioned killing makes us accomplices since it is done in our
names;
• The application of the death penalty is deeply flawed and can be
irreversibly wrong, is prone to errors, and is biased by factors such as
race, the quality of legal representation, and where the crime was
committed; and
• There are other ways to punish criminals and protect society.
Narrowed to the United States, 12 states do not have the death penalty;
Indiana does. Approximately 3,500 inmates currently are on death row.
Recent Supreme Court decisions have limited the use of the death penalty
by declaring it unconstitutional to execute persons with mental
retardation and juveniles under the age of 18. The court has also ruled
that defendants are entitled to have a jury decide whether to impose the
death penalty. (This takes it out of the hands of judges.) Since 1973,
there have been 117 exonerations of death-row inmates. Meanwhile, in
2004, the death penalty was declared unconstitutional in New York State.
In recent years, attempts to reinstate capital punishment in several
states (Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin) have failed.
Noted, too, is the fact that in a five-year period from 1999 to 2004,
the number of people put to death in the United States dropped 40
percent. In 2000, 3,601 people were on death row in the United States.
By 2005, that number had dropped to approximately 3,452 state and
federal death-row inmates. Until the late 1990s, 300 defendants on
average were sentenced to death each year. In 2003, only 144 were sent
to death row, a 50 percent drop. This suggests that the tide is turning.
Catholic teaching offers a moral framework for choices about the use of
the death penalty. A principled Catholic response to crime and
punishment is rooted in Catholic conviction about good and evil, sin and
redemption, justice and mercy. It is also shaped by the Catholic
commitment to the life and dignity of every human person.
As the bishops of the United States taught in a 2005 document titled
A Culture of Life and the Penalty of Death, “The opening chapters of
the Bible teach that every life is a precious gift from God. This gift
must be respected and protected. We are created in God’s image and
redeemed by Jesus Christ, who himself was crucified. Those harmed by
violence deserve both justice and compassion. Those who inflict such
harm must be held accountable.”
Some wrongly appeal to Scripture to justify the use of capital
punishment: “life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth” (Ex. 21:23-25,
Lv. 24:17, Dt. 19-21), the Bible proclaims. Scripture experts, however,
instruct that these passages were intended to limit the retribution that
could be exacted for an offense. Moreover, individual passages need to
be read in the context of sacred Scripture as a whole. While the Old
Testament includes some passages about taking the life of one who kills,
the Old Testament and the teaching of Christ in the New Testament call
us to protect life, practice mercy and reject vengeance.
A Culture of Life continues, “Within the Catholic tradition,
punishment has several purposes: redressing the disorder caused by the
offense (just retribution); defending public order; deterring future
wrongdoing; and promoting reform, repentance and conversion of those who
commit evil acts.
“Even when people deny the dignity of others, we must still recognize
that their dignity is a gift from God and is not something that is
earned or lost through their behavior. Respect for life applies to all,
even the perpetrators of terrible acts. Punishment should be consistent
with the demands of justice and with the respect of human life and
dignity.”
In its traditional teaching as summarized in the Catechism of the
Catholic Church, the Church affirms the right and duty of legitimate
public authority “to inflict punishment proportionate to the gravity of
the offense” (#2266). Recourse to the death penalty is not absolutely
excluded (#2267). The death penalty is not intrinsically evil, as is the
intentional taking of innocent life through abortion or euthanasia.
Nonetheless, the Church teaches that in contemporary society, where the
state has other non-lethal means to protect its citizens, the state
should not use the death penalty (#2267).
Back in 2000, the Indiana Catholic Conference issued a 12-minute
videotape titled “Talking about the Death Penalty.” Designed for use at
the parish level, this video was updated in DVD format in May of 2006
and re-titled “Death Penalty: No Justice, No Healing, No Closure.” It is
available through the Indiana Catholic Conference, 1400 N. Meridian St.,
Box 1410, Indianapolis, Indiana 46206; phone 317-236-1455.
We as Catholics are called to defend the sanctity of life from natural
conception to natural death. Even when a person commits a heinous crime,
God is the Lord of life. Protecting human life is a sacred duty. Working
to end the death penalty is an integral and important part of resisting
a culture of death and building a true culture of life. The death
penalty does not bring closure. Closure comes through forgiveness.
Violence only makes our society more violent. The cry is to build a
culture of life in which our nation will no longer try to teach that
killing is wrong by killing those who kill. The cycle of violence
diminishes all of us.
It is time for our nation to abandon the illusion that life can be
protected by taking life. Ending the use of the death penalty would be
one important step away from a culture of death toward a culture of
life. A pro-active stance by Catholics has great potential to move our
nation forward. |
