Capital Puishment

[HagiaSophia]

“Recent evidence suggests that capital punishment may have a significant deterrent effect, preventing as many as 18 or more murders per execution.”

A Life-for-Life Tradeoff

With that bold assertion begins a March 2005 study from the AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies. The report’s authors, Cass Sunstein and Adrian Vermeule, performed a comprehensive review of state and federal data and found a striking consistency. From 1997-1999 a death sentence deterred 4.5 murders and an execution deterred three murders. The deterrent effect is also a function of the length of time on death row, with a murder deterred for every 2.75 years deducted from the period before execution.

What’s more, 91% of the states which suspended the death penalty faced an increase in homicides. But in 67% of states, the rate was decreased after reinstatement of capital punishment.

“Capital punishment,” state the authors, “presents a life-life tradeoff, and a serious commitment to the sanctity of human life may well compel, rather than forbid, that form of punishment.”

All of this is of great interest to Catholics. The late Pope John Paul II was famously opposed to the death penalty, claiming that the circumstances in which it is appropriate are “practically nonexistent.” Does that mean that on an issue like the death penalty, conscientious Catholics must ignore social science and simply agree with the pope or risk lapsing into dissent?

Legitimate Diversity of Opinion

It doesn’t.** While all Catholics should give due deference to the Holy Father on matters of faith and morals, it is important to (1) examine precisely what he has said on a given subject and (2) determine the voice in which he is speaking.

Let’s address these subjects in reverse order…"**

catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?art_id=29408

 

[Karin]

I personally do not have an issue with the death penalty…my issue rests with the men and woman that are on “death row” that are killed and afterwards we find out they where innocent of the crime that they where convicted of.

 

[geezerbob]

Karin:

I personally do not have an issue with the death penalty…my issue rests with the men and woman that are on “death row” that are killed and afterwards we find out they where innocent of the crime that they where convicted of.

DNA testing should eliminate most, if not all, of those cases in the future. Let’s hope so, anyway.

 

[WanderAimlessly]

Although I could not vote for the death penalty if I was on a jury, I do see it as needed in extreme cases and it is a deterrant.

I find it egregious that the Culture of Perversion is for abortion and euthanasia, but are against the Death Penalty. I guess they believe in death for the innocent and life for the guilty.

PF

 

[Texas_Ex]

Karin:

I personally do not have an issue with the death penalty…my issue rests with the men and woman that are on “death row” that are killed and afterwards we find out they where innocent of the crime that they where convicted of.

Then rest easy, Karin – there has not been one single demonstratively innocent person put to death since the the re-introduction of the death penalty in the late 1970s.

What’s that you say? You’re certain that I’m wrong, because you’ve heard that innocents have been executed? Well, just because something untrue is repeated incessantly by those with an axe to grind does not make it true. But you are not alone – many share this misunderstanding. For more, see below:

VI. The Innocent Executed

It is not at all uncommon for death penalty opponents to make false claims about innocents executed. As of 1/1/03, The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP) claims that “Twenty three (23) innocent people have been mistakenly executed (in the US) this (the 20th) century.” This is a common false claim, even though the authors of that 1987 study, in response to a deconstruction of their work, stated, in 1988, that “We agree with our critics that we have not proved these (23) executed defendants to be innocent; we never claimed that we had.” The NCADP is well aware of this, yet it doesn’t stop their deception.

Barry Scheck, cofounder of the Innocence Project and featured speaker at the National Conference on Wrongful Convictions and the Death Penalty (11/13-15/98), stated that he had no proof of an innocent executed (in the US since 1976).

Not even the nation’s leading, biased source for anti death penalty information, the DPIC, says there is proof of an innocent executed. They list 5 “doubt” cases: Gary Graham, Joseph O’Dell, Roger Keith Coleman, Leo Jones and David Spence. A review shows how deceptive the DPIC case descriptions are and how lacking any proof of innocence is.

prodeathpenalty.com/Innocence.htm