DeSantis is right about the death penalty – in some cases it can be morally justified

Catholic Herald ^ | April 24, 2023 | Laura Perrins

[ebb tide]

DeSantis is right about the death penalty – in some cases it can be morally justified

Catholic organisations have called a new Florida law that ends the unanimous jury requirement in death penalty sentencing “stunning” and a “thinly veiled attack on human life”, while the state’s Catholic governor and potential 2024 presidential contender Ron DeSantis argues the law allows proper justice to be served.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill that allows capital punishment with a jury recommendation of at least 8-4 in favour of the death sentence, replacing the state’s previous unanimous requirement of 12-0 for such cases.

In response, Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, executive director of the anti-capital punishment organization Catholic Mobilizing Network, called the move deeply disturbing, saying in a statement: “in no uncertain terms, DeSantis has signed into law a thinly veiled attack on human life.”

The Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a statement that it’s “stunning” that DeSantis and the Florida legislature would reverse the “common-sense” law from just six years ago that required a unanimous agreement from a jury to sentence someone to death. The new bill received bipartisan support from the Florida legislature.

DeSantis, a Republican, has advocated for the legislation ever since a divided jury voted 9-3 last October in the case of Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz, sparing him from the death penalty. Cruz killed 17 teenagers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in 2018. He eventually pleaded guilty to 17 murder charges and 17 attempted murder charges.

The verdict angered the victims’ families, as Cruz instead received a life sentence without the possibility of parole. DeSantis signed the new law in a private ceremony with the families of the Parkland victims.

Prior to 2018, the Catechism of the Catholic Church recognised “the right and duty of legitimate public authority to punish malefactors by means of penalties commensurate with the gravity of the crime, not excluding, in cases of extreme gravity, the death penalty.” However, that has since been revised by Pope Francis to “the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide.” I still to this day, do not really understand what “inadmissible” means. This was a controversial change at the time and should remain so. 

Catholic teaching tells us that it is always and everywhere wrong to deliberately take an innocent human life, but clearly if someone has been tried for a very serious crime such as murder in extreme circumstances we are no longer dealing with an innocent human life. Some people also say that the commandment “thou shalt not kill” alone prohibits the death penalty. This is not correct as it would rule out acting in self-defence or fighting in a just war. The commandment in its original Hebrew says “thou shalt not murder”. The death penalty, if imposed in a just manner, does not constitute murder. 

I believe there are certainly crimes committed that, morally speaking, reach the threshold where the death penalty can be justly imposed. The deliberate terrorising and murdering of 17 teenagers in the sanctuary of their own school obviously passes that threshold. I believe it is no longer a case then of imposing the death penalty.

Indeed, in America there are many such cases where in principle the death penalty is justified. A triple murder which was covered in a documentary on Netflix, “The Family Next Door”, to me was particularly chilling. 

In the early hours of August 13, 2018, Christopher Watts murdered his pregnant wife Shanann by strangulation and his daughters Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3, by smothering them. He buried Shanann in a shallow grave near an oil-storage facility and dumped his children’s bodies into crude oil tanks. (Watts in fact avoided the death penalty as part of a plea bargain, but it clearly passes the threshold.) 

The details are chilling. During his confession Christopher Watts told police that after murdering his wife it took him 45 minutes to drive to a remote oil field with Shanann’s body in the back of the truck while his daughters, who were still alive at the time, sat clinging onto each other in the backseat. “During the ride, the girls were dozing on and off, held each other, and laid in each other’s laps,” Watts said.

Before burying his wife’s body in a shallow grave, Watts suffocated his youngest daughter Celeste in the backseat. After dumping her tiny body, he returned to suffocate Bella who asked in a low voice: “Is the same thing gonna happen to me as Cece?'” before uttering her last words, “Daddy no!”

In my view, Christopher Watts deserved the death penalty as a matter of justice. I also happen to believe that popes down the years should have spent more time arguing for the protection of innocent life than worrying about whether child killers should be spared the death penalty. Christopher Watts did not have to murder his two helpless, innocent, tiny daughters. He could have turned the car around in that 45 minute drive. But he didn’t. He went on and smothered those girls. In doing so he has sacrificed his right to life, no one else did that for him. 

De Santis is well within his rights to change the requirements for a sentence of death. What procedural requirements should be satisfied are rightly subject to hot debate, but are separate from the moral question of whether the death penalty can ever be justified.

Personally, I think the threshold of all 12 jurors agreeing to the penalty is set too high, as it means a single person can veto it. However, I think DeSantis is wrong to set the threshold at 8-4 in favour. Given the gravity of the penalty, something that can never be reversed, I would ask for a 10-2 requirement. It is also the case that there are significant and serious racial biases in American society and the criminal justice system that should mitigate against the imposition of such a penalty. 

Finally, I agree with Murphy when she says, “The death penalty should not be used to score political points. Human beings should not be used as political pawns — including human beings on death row.”

In some cases, the death penalty is morally justified. However, how it works in practise must be carefully considered.

[ebb tide]

DeSantis is more Catholic than Bergoglio.

[ebb tide]

Ping

[metmom]

God established the death penalty for certain crimes.

Of course it’s justifiable in many cases as God can do no wrong.

[Gay State Conservative]

I always assumed that the Catholic Church’s official position was complete opposition to both the death penalty and abortion.

[Secret Agent Man]

Attack on human life.....thats rich

Who took human life first? The g-d criminal.

Veiled attack on himna life my shiny metal a$$. Its an incredibly valid biblical solution.

[Secret Agent Man]

Well the Catholics are of a branch that rarely consult the bible for whats right.

[BobL]

“Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill that allows capital punishment with a jury recommendation of at least 8-4 in favour of the death sentence, replacing the state’s previous unanimous requirement of 12-0 for such cases.”

For those who may be confused, two things caused this: (1) Allowing people who may be tribal to be on juries; and (2) Training these people in Jury Nullification.

[bantam]

Amen!
I love PDJT & am disgusted at what the deep state has done to him, but he is being a tool the way he is attacking DeSantis.
I cannot support that!

[Salvavida]

Even in the information age, Catholics have a tough time finding the ordination of the death penalty by God, which continued into the New Testament.

Government has a sword for a reason.

[grimalkin]

Far from being guilty of breaking this commandment [Thou shall not kill], such an execution of justice is precisely an act of obedience to it. For the purpose of the law is to protect and foster human life. This purpose is fulfilled when the legitimate authority of the State is exercised by taking the guilty lives of those who have taken innocent lives.

Roman Catechism of the Council of Trent, 1566, Part III, 5, n. 4.

[bantam]

Go DeSantis, keeps gettin it done for Florida!

[BobL]

“In response, Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, executive director of the anti-capital punishment organization Catholic Mobilizing Network”

I’m surprised any Catholic leader has time to get involved with this, considering how much effort they’re putting into human trafficking across our southern border.

[No name given]

Amen!!!!

[Alberta's Child]

I have never questioned the morality of the death penalty.

In the United States today, however, the practical application of capital punishment is a non-starter.

Our politicized “criminal justice” system no longer has the moral authority to put people in jail, let alone execute them.

[Eccl 10:2]

The Catholics have it 100% wrong in their Bible when it comes to Commandment #5. In their Bible, it says:

“Thou shalt not kill.”

The ONLY correct translation from the original Hebrew is:

“Thou shalt not murder”.

This opened the door for the Catholics to espouse all matter of Liberal weenie theology and political thinking, ie, no executions, can’t kill animals, can’t say no to anything, etc. It’s a very slippery slope once you cross that line.

The same can be said for the Protestant “KJV only” zombie lemmings. They have the same translation for this commandment.

This thinking and translation is straight from the depths of Hell.

There is simply no cogent argument otherwise.

Don’t argue with me. Argue with God. He wrote The Book.

[Tired of Taxes]

That’s always been my understanding, too. The Catholic Church opposes both abortion and the death penalty.

[ebb tide]

Thanks for the quote!

[odawg]

DeSantis is right about the death penalty - in some cases it can be morrally justified????

That has been the operative belief in the United States since the Constitution (and before, of course, and throughout human history). I did not know that DeSantis had taken sole ownership of that concept that goes back to Genesis.

[chajin]

The Catholics have it 100% wrong in their Bible when it comes to Commandment #5. In their Bible, it says: “Thou shalt not kill.” The ONLY correct translation from the original Hebrew is: “Thou shalt not murder”.

To be fair, I was listening to Relevant [Catholic] Radio's "The Faith Explained" broadcast today, and Cale Clarke, the show's host, made this point specifically concerning the translation of the 5th Commandment, and tied it to Exodus 23:7 saying do not kill the innocent or righteous, so that the commandment doesn't by itself prohibit the death penalty.

[Paal Gulli]

"Far from being guilty of breaking this commandment [Thou shall not kill], ...

There is NO SUCH COMMANDMENT. And never was.

The tablets Moses brought down from Mt Sinai did not bear the Hebrew word for "kill;" not once.

This is the 6th Commandment, exactly as it appears in both of the oldest Decalogues in existence, 4QPaleoExodus m, and the Nash Papyrus. It reads (phonetically), "Lo tirtzach," which in Hebrew means "You shall do no murder."

Not "kill," "murder."

But murder was changed deliberately in several instances to killing, the most notable being St. Jerome's Vulgate Bible, possibly (and unfortunately) the most influential translation ever.

Jerome did it because his commission was to write a translation in the "common" or "vulgar" Latin, the Latin of the common people. And he didn't want they should be confused over the distinction, so HE CHANGED THE BIBLE.

It would be rather hypocritical of G-d to make a commandment about "not killing" when there are several other instances in the Old Testament when he instructs people to kill for him, up to and including several instances of genocide.