Who thinks about the death penalty? Who thinks about men and women on death row, hidden in a faraway state prison?
I sure didn't -- until years ago one of my parishioners was killed, and the convicted murderer was her husband and also my parishioner. Then the issue of capital punishment became real for me. This was a couple I had prepared for marriage, and happily witnessed their vows of love. Yet 18 months later one was dead, and the other was on trial for his life.
"Blunt force trauma." What horrible words. That was the cause of death, at the hands of her husband, as determined by a jury of his peers. You think, if she died, shouldn't he as well? Didn't the bible say, "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth"? Well, what about a life for a life?
It is at moments like these that one has to ask, does being a Catholic Christian mean anything? For forty years our church has spoken against the death penalty as an offense against human dignity. As the U.S. Catholic bishops have written, "We cannot teach that killing is wrong by killing." In a 1995 encyclical, Blessed Pope John Paul II asked governments to stop using death as the ultimate penalty. The Holy Father pointed out that instances where its application is necessary to protect society have been "very rare, if not practically nonexistent."
Our fellow citizens must be listening to this pro-life message. Since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, there have been 1,307 executions. But the annual number of sentences and executions has declined for the past five years. In 2005 the Supreme Court struck down the death penalty for juveniles. Study after study have shown the arbitrariness of the death penalty, depending on the race of the victim, race of the defendant, or region of the country. Due to DNA testing, somewhere around 130 men have been exonerated and released from death row in the U.S. after years of incarceration.
If Americans are not swayed by moral argumetnts they are changing their minds to oppose the death penalty because of cost. Enforcing a capital case can mean millions of dollars more in legal expenses for states than sentencing murderers to life imprisonment without possibility of parole. Recent polls indicate waning public support for use of the death penalty. Most law enforcement officers consider the threat of the death penalty a poor means to reduce violent crime.
Christian faith ofers a unique perspective on crime and punishment. We see human dignity both in the victim and in the perpetrator. The God-given dignity of human life does not end when a person does great harm, even to the point of murder. Again, the U.S. bishops: "Ending the death penalty would be one important step away from a culture of death and toward building a culture of life."
And my former parishioner? He was sentenced to life in prison without parole. As Sister Helen Prejean taught us, we can hope and pray that in his long hours locked up he comes to reconsider his murder and seek God's forgiveness for the evil he did. Others may be able to minister to him and fellow death row inmates. The abolition of the death penalty is a small, but importnat step in turning away from state- sponsored violence and toward upholding human life.
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