Pope Francis, Death Penalty, and Life Imprisonment

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And you have Repent-o-Meter to,determine the state of another person’s soul to see if they’re repentant or not and if they ever will be repentant?
He also said “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”
 
mVitus said:
And you have Repent-o-Meter to,determine the state of another person’s soul to see if they’re repentant or not and if they ever will be repentant?
He also said “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”
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If they show no signs of repentance then we should administer the proper and God-ordained punishment for their crimes. If they are truly repentant then this will not ultimately harm them because God knows their heart and will judge them accordingly. If they are truly unrepentant then it will also not harm them because while they will go to Hell, they will have been prevented from committing even more sins and perhaps be spared a deeper level of suffering than if they had been allowed to live.

If they are not repentant now, but would be in the future, then again, the God of hidden knowledge will see this and act according to His particular knowledge. And perhaps the reality of their impending death will spur them on to repentance they would never have known had they been allowed to live (which has happened many, many times in history). In that case, by punishing them we would have literally been the deciding factor in saving their soul.

If they show signs of true repentance then perhaps we should stay the execution. Depending on the nature of their repentant actions and the nature of their crime. Though a truly repentant man would also accept his execution willingly, because a truly repentant man would understand that his crime deserves punishment, so perhaps not. It would depend on whether or not we can see some value in perserving the person’s life.
 
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Repentance allows us to receive forgiveness for our sins, but it does not eliminate the punishment we are due for having committed them. We may well forgive a murderer for his action, but that forgiveness does not extend to exempting him from his just punishment. There may be justification for reducing the severity of a penitent’s punishment, but penitence alone is not sufficient.
 
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