[frank ballenger]

Excellent point.

As for the weepy bleeding heart anti death penalty folks, here is a reminder of the Catholic Church official executioners in earlier times.

“One man, Giovanni Battista Bugatti, carried out 516 executions as the “Pope’s Executioner” between 1796 and 1865. The executioner used one of three methods: guillotine (after 1816), smashing the head with a mallet and cutting the throat of the condemned, or drawing and quartering.”
japl.org

[PGR88]

“One man, Giovanni Battista Bugatti, carried out 516 executions as the “Pope’s Executioner” between 1796 and 1865. The executioner used one of three methods: guillotine (after 1816), smashing the head with a mallet and cutting the throat of the condemned, or drawing and quartering.”

As always, this needs PERSPECTIVE to eliminate attempts at bias

This was during the period of the Papal States, when the Church controlled about 1/3 of what is present day Italy.

It amounts to about 7 executions a year - for things like rape, robbing and murdering pilgrims, etc....

Also look at what was common in other European nations and tradition at the time,