Pope: Against the Death Penalty

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Funny how the LDS Church took tremendous heat for the whole Prop 8. thing with many saying that a church had no business in politics, and here we have a world leader of the 1st or 2nd largest religion in the world, Catholicism, making a very bold position against the Death Penalty.

It would seem that I am either obsessed over the death penalty, or that my previous post is somewhat prophetic in its topic. Either way, the death penalty has found its way into the discussion once more. The main theme of his declaration was that there is no "justice without life." I am not entirely sure how to agree with this statement as Justice would absolutely call for such a punishment. Perhaps his position would have more merit had he argued that there is no mercy without life. Even that would be called into question. What about the justice of the dead, the mercy that isn't possible anymore because of a capital offense? Why does a murderer or serial rapist deserve mercy more than the families and friends of the victim?

Many in the media tend to look at the death penalty as so unfair, some even say cruel and unusual. Throw punishment out, most of the people convicted of capital crimes have done something cruel and unusual to another, without it even being in the punishment category. If someone is to commit a capital offense, then their own death is not so "unusual" but rather a common thing. Death is something they must be comfortable with if they are to bring that on another.

Let me give an example to illustrate further: How is it justice if someone steals 10 dollars from someone that they only have to repay 5, or 6? In most cases, people would call it justice if someone stole 10 dollars that they not only had to repay the 10 dollars, but have punitive damages as well to dissuade them from doing the act in the first place. If the punishment for stealing 10 dollars is only having to repay 5 or 6 dollars, then I just made 4 or 5 dollars for doing something illegal and offensive to another.

In comparison to death penalty cases, if someone consciously murders another (takes 10 dollars to connect with the metaphor for those following along) how is it somehow justice to say that they don't have to loose their life in return? In someways justice is not served fully as there is no way to make the offense whole with additional punitive damages on top. The most that can be repaid, the offenders life, still falls short of complete justice. The real injustice is that the innocent life was initially taken, not that the offender suffers a similar fate only compounded with guilt.