The Death Penalty and the Culture of Death

From Texas Lifts Reprieve, Executes Inmate:

"A man convicted in a 1992 murder case in which the troubled Houston police crime lab allegedly mishandled evidence was executed Tuesday evening despite last-minute legal battles and pleas from relatives of the murder victim that his life be spared....

"'Texas is going to put a righteous person to die like an animal, putting him on a table, strapping him up, putting those needles in his arms, putting him to sleep,' the victim's son, Andre Lastrapes-Luckett, said after meeting with Green in prison Monday."



Dominique Green

Requiescat in pace.

Capital Punishment, while not intrinsically evil, is in its application today a part of the Culture of Death.

Paragraph # 2267 of the CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH states:

"Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.

"If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people's safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.

"Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm - without definitely taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself - the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity 'are very rare, if not practically non-existent.'"

[From today's news, see also U.S. Cardinal Opposes Expanding Death Penalty for Terrorists: Urges "Bloodless Means" Instead and Ex-Death Row Inmates Urge End to Capital Punishment]