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Chapter 5. Death Penalty

"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," teaches the Old Testament.[31] Other ancient writings also offer similar legal guidance for dealing with personal injuries. The simplicity of this approach -- that when a person is injured, he/she should expect to have the same injury imposed on the aggressor -- is very appealing.

In practice, however, ancient civilizations did not find it a simple solution. What does a culture do when a high-ranking, powerful individual is judged guilty of a crime which would require humiliation or disfigurement? Typically, it offered varying punishments based on the guilty party's wealth and position. The Code of Hammurabi, for example, allowed persons of higher social standing to pay fines rather than lose their teeth. And what can a culture do when murder is committed unintentionally? The Old Testament teaches that those who unintentionally cause death may flee to predetermined "cities of refuge" to avoid being killed by the victim's family.[32] This important but often overlooked limit to the "eye for an eye" method of punishment is somewhat more compassionate than brutal retribution: only the guilty party is punished for a serious crime, not family, friends, or an entire clan.

Over the centuries, many governments have accepted the legal principle that murder is a serious matter requiring a serious punishment and that a person judged guilty of murdering another should be punished by execution. In our own nation, the use of the death penalty has been used, debated, and questioned for decades without a clear resolution. But the question for us today is: Is the death penalty a necessary method of punishment to maintain peace in our nation?

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The legal position today

In the recent past, the U.S. Supreme Court has issued a series of decisions related to the death penalty. In a notable decision, the Court ruled in 1972 (Furman v. Georgia) that the death penalty as then administered was cruel and unusual punishment and thus contrary to the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. Several state legislatures therefore revised state statutes to avoid the Court's concern that the death penalty was being imposed arbitrarily. The Supreme Court then upheld death sentence decisions based on these revised statutes. Since that time, there have been other Supreme Court decisions related to the death penalty. Today the Court recognizes the right of states to impose the death penalty in a fair, nonarbitrary manner.

There are 38 states, including Ohio, that currently permit the death penalty, with varying possible methods of execution. In these states, the death penalty is imposed for capital crimes, that is, crimes that are considered particularly serious, such as murder.

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The Church's position

In order to understand the Catholic Church's position on the death penalty, it is first necessary to remember that all human life is sacred.[33] All human beings are created in the image and likeness of God. God told Noah that murder is an extremely serious crime for this reason, saying, "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image."[34] On Mt. Sinai, God reiterated this point through the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill."[35]

As followers of Christ, we also look to Jesus' example when we make decisions about how to deal with evil acts such as murder and those who have perpetrated such crimes. Rather than avoiding sinners or ostracizing them, Jesus sought them out, taught them, and healed them. One of Jesus' most radical teachings, a teaching we find easy to acknowledge as true but hard to put into practice, is the admonition to love our enemies and turn the other cheek when hurt by someone.[35] Jesus showed His complete commitment to this attitude of forgiveness during the events leading to the crucifixion. He stopped Peter from defending Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, and He begged God's forgiveness for those who crucified Him, even while hanging on the cross, dying and in agony.

Drawing from the teachings of both Old and New Testaments, the Catholic Church reiterates both the inestimable value of human life as well as the unfailing need to forgive those who have hurt us. How can we put this challenging teaching into practice in our sinful world?

The Church begins by reminding us that we have the obligation to protect those for whom we are responsible. Parents not only have the right but also the duty to protect their children, and public leaders similarly must seek to protect the citizenry they lead. As individuals, we also have the right and duty to protect ourselves from harm for we are all children of God. In the act of defending oneself or another person, the intention should be to protect that life from the aggressor; the death of the aggressor is not intended but may result from the legitimate need for defense due to the aggressor's hostile actions. This teaching of legitimate defense respects the value of human life, which human beings do not have the right to destroy. It also, points us back to the core of Jesus' teaching about sin: that it begins in our hearts. When we intend to hurt another out of vengeance and hatred rather than intending to protect out of loving service, we have forgotten the universal call to love one another.

Over the centuries, the Church has taught that legitimate public authority has the right to protect citizens from dangerous individuals, particularly those who have committed the grave offense of murder. This position is based on the teaching of legitimate defense and is still applicable today. The underlying assumption of this position, however, is that the state is imposing the death penalty only as a means of "rendering the aggressor unable to inflict harm."[36] The dilemma in our nation today is that there are serious questions as to whether ending the life of the aggressor is the only means by which citizens can be protected. The Catholic Catechism encourages us to remember that, "If bloodless means are sufficient to defend human lives against an aggressor and to protect public order and the safety of persons, public authority should limit itself to those means, because they better correspond to the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person."[37] Our Pope has elaborated on this teaching on the death penalty in his recent encyclical, The Gospel of Life: "It is clear that [for the purposes of defending public order and ensuring people's safety to be achieved], the nature and extent of the punishment must be carefully evaluated and decided upon, and ought not to go to the extreme of executing the offender except in cases of absolute necessity: in other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society. Today however, as a result of steady improvements in the organization of the penal system, such cases are rare, if not practically nonexistent."[38]

In our nation at least, which boasts a well-established, stable government and prides itself on its attempts to ensure equal justice for all, the imposition of the death penalty thus appears to violate Church teaching. While America's current problems with violence are serious and require our attention, it is not clear that executing those convicted of capital crimes is a necessity for the public good.

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How does this impact our society?

The first and most serious impact of performing the death penalty is the violent ending of the life of the convicted person. The executed individual thus loses the opportunity to repent and be reconciled with God (if he or she has not already done so) and to seek forgiveness and make reparation to those who have been harmed. This lost opportunity is final. No matter what the executed person may have done to merit punishment, Christ died for that person's salvation and He seeks this lost sheep as He seeks all of us when we stray from what is true and right. It cannot be forgotten, however, that human judgment is imperfect and that it is possible for an innocent person to be unjustly convicted of a capital crime. Making a mistake in these matters is extremely serious and should make us carefully consider the eternal ramifications of any decision to perform an execution.

To consider the suffering of the executed individual is not to ignore the suffering of those he or she harmed or killed. The victims of capital crimes require our prayers and loving support. The families and friends of those who have suffered and died from such violence are also suffering victims, suffering for their loss of a loved one. Once again we must turn to the challenging example of Jesus Christ, who encountered grief, anger, and violence during His life on earth. Jesus was not above weeping at the death of His friend Lazarus or comforting Lazarus's sisters in their grief. Jesus answered the angry crowd who brought an adulterous woman to Him to be stoned, but not with anger or vengeance. He simply called them to search their hearts and recognize their own sins. And when Jesus learned that "the greatest man born of woman," John the Baptist, had been executed for speaking the truth, He continued to teach the same message of love and forgiveness to all people. While it is extremely difficult for us human beings to show such pure love for those who have hurt our loved ones, we must all seek God's grace in our attempts to do so.

Often forgotten in this discussion are the family members and loved ones of those who are convicted of capital crimes. These people also suffer loss, grief, and sorrow, and we must show compassion to them as well.

As a society, the imposition of the death penalty speaks poorly of our Christian call to love our neighbors as ourselves. By permitting these executions, we are also encouraging victims and their families to seek revenge, not healing, to pursue anger, not love. The death penalty itself implies that there are some people who are "not worth" helping, people who are impossible to save. But we know that, as the angel told Mary at the Annunciation, "Nothing will be impossible for God."[39] Finally, as the Catholic Conference of Ohio wrote in 1997, "We cannot teach that killing is wrong by killing."[40]

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Alternatives to the death penalty

It is human to be horrified and angry at the violence done by a capital crime. Our first step should always be to pray for all those involved in the crime, both victims and criminals alike. Just as Moses "stood in the gap," praying for the disobedient, ungrateful Israelites during the Exodus, we too can be bridges between God and His hurt and suffering children when we pray for others.

There are three simple things that we can pray for -- and help work for -- to help those who have committed capital crimes: repentance, reparation, and rehabilitation. While we cannot manufacture these things as we can prisons and handcuffs, we can make it more likely for those who have committed serious crimes to turn away from sin and change their lives.

To call people to repentance is a difficult task, but the Gospels show us innumerable examples of how much more quickly the weak, poor, and sinful accepted Jesus' message of repentance than did the rich, powerful, and apparently righteous. It is only when a person has recognized past mistakes and seen the need to change that true change can begin. Prison ministries can bring this powerful message to criminals, but so can all those who work in law enforcement, the legal system, and prisons.

When we as Catholics confess our sins during the Sacrament of Reconciliation, it is required for us to make some act of reparation for the harm we have done. If we recognize that we have hurt a coworker through angry remarks, for example, we can apologize, ask the person's forgiveness, and try to find ways to repair the relationship. Parents often require their children to apologize for unkind behavior toward another in simpler but similar ways. So too we can make it possible for those who have committed capital crimes to repair the damage they have done in some way. In some nations, for example, prisoners work while in prison, and their "pay" is given to their victims, the victims' families, or to pay for their incarceration. While money cannot buy back a lost life, it can serve as a token of repentance and bring closure to both prisoner and victim.

Whether the criminal is permanently incarcerated or not, it is desirable to help the person develop responsible skills and abilities. Effective rehabilitation will help the person focus on personal improvement, not reliving the past or escaping the present. When prisoners are given work which offers dignity and purpose without becoming slavery, prisons themselves become safer places.[41]

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What can we do as Church and as individuals?

During a recent debate in New Hampshire's House of Representatives, Rep. Robert Cushing spoke about his experience of dealing with the murder of his father. He said, "Survivors of crime, survivors of homicide want three things. They want to know the truth about what happened. They want to have justice in whatever fashion. . . Finally, we want to heal."[42] He points out that healing for the victim's family is not accomplished by the death of the murderer, for part of that healing involved forgiveness. He said, "As one victim, as a colleague, I stand before you to ask that you vote to abolish the death penalty, not so much because I want murderers to live but because if the state kills them, that forever forecloses the possibility that those of us who are victims might be able to figure out how to forgive. We've lost enough already. Don't take that option for healing away, please."[43]

As a worshiping community, we can and should continue to pray for all those whose lives have been affected, threatened, and ended by violence. We should also pray for God's grace and mercy on those who have committed such terrible crimes.

As individuals, we can become better informed about the complexities of this issue, particularly in regard to current legal practices. We can express our opinions to our elected officials, helping them to better appreciate the convictions of Christians and to seek positive methods of bringing about lifelong change in those convicted of crimes without endangering public safety. We can also support programs which provide comfort and guidance for those affected by violence by donating our time or our money.

In these ways we can help the Lord turn terrible events into opportunities for growth and healing. Just as Good Friday saddens us as we contemplate the depths of human sin, so Easter Sunday shows us the power of God to make all things work for good. We should ask for nothing less in our troubled world today.

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Resources

Educational programs, networking, and legislative advocacy

Local and national organizations

Prayers

Please add your own prayers to these.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me,
far from my prayer, from the words of my cry?
O my God, I cry out by day, and you answer not;
by night, and there is no relief for me.
Yet you are enthroned in the holy place, O glory
of Israel!
In you our fathers trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
To you they cried, and they escaped;
in you they trusted, and they were not put to shame.
But I am a worm, not a man;
the scorn of men, despised by the people.
All who see me scoff at me;
they mock me with parted lips,
they wag their heads:
"He relied on the Lord; let him deliver him,
let him rescue him, if he loves him."
You have been my guide since I was first formed,
my security at my mother's breast.
To you I was committed at birth,
from my mother's womb you are my God.
Psalm 22:2-11

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Prayer For Those in Prison and Those Facing the Death Penalty

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Proclaiming the Sanctity of Life  | Purpose of This Handbook  | The Importance of Life  |  Abortion  |  Contraception  | Death Penalty  |  Euthanasia  |  Substance Abuse  | Suicide  |  Conclusion  |  Footnotes

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