I have never understood how those who refer to themselves as “pro-life” can support the death penalty. Time and again in recent years, I have read an op-ed supporting life and nodded along in agreement about how every life has meaning, not realizing until the last paragraph or two that the author was talking about abortion, not the death penalty.
If all life is sacred, why is it not wrong to support government-sponsored executions, in which the state knowingly and intentionally causes the death of another human being?
Please understand I am not discussing the issue of whether a fetus is a live person. Since those who view themselves as pro-life take that as a given, it’s irrelevant for the purposes of this discussion. What I’m asking is, assuming arguendo, that a fetus is a live person, which is what those who are pro-life believe, how can these same people justify the death penalty?
The Catholic Church opposes the death penalty. They also oppose abortion and a woman’s right to choose. While I agree with the former and not the latter position, I have to admit, at least the Church is consistent. A life is a life. If those who believe it’s wrong to kill an unborn fetus because an unborn fetus is a human being, how can it also not be wrong to kill an adult who undisputedly is a breathing, living human being?
Earlier this month a mass was held in Corpus Christi, Texas that was attended by judges, attorneys and members of local law enforcement agencies. The guest speaker was U.S. Appeals Court Judge Carolyn Dineen King, who spoke on capital punishment. You can read her remarks at www.goccn.org/stc/articles/article.cfm?article=550
Judge King called upon all Catholics to support the Catholic Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty. The campaign notes that: “We cannot overcome crime by simply executing criminals, nor can we restore the lives of the innocent by ending the lives of those convicted of their murders. The death penalty offers the tragic illusion than we can defend life by taking life. Administrative Committee, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, A Good Friday Appeal to End the Death Penalty (Washington, D.C.: USCCB, 1999).
Wisconsin has not had a death penalty for 150 years. On November 7, voters will weigh in on whether it should be restored. The La Crosse Tribune recently published an editorial urging voters to reject the death penalty for four reasons:
» Life without parole keeps the public safe.
» It’s ridiculously expensive compared to the cost of incarceration.
» It has not been shown to be a deterrent.
» It’s not applied fairly.
I’ll add one more reason: The risk is too great that an innocent person will be executed. Facts and figures are at www.ncadp.org/fact_sheet4.html. In 1895, the United States Supreme Court decided U.S. v. Coffin, in which it traced the presumption of innocence and the phrase “It is better that X number of guilty men go free than one innocent person be put to death” past England, Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, and according to one scholar, Greenleaf, to Deuteronomy.
It’s true that religions are far from unified on the subject of the death penalty. Yet it seems to me that those who rely on their religion to justify their pro-life position must also oppose the death penalty.
For example, according to the Catholic Church, capital punishment can only be used if it is impossible to contain the perpetrator — unlikely in the modern age in a developed nation, according to the Rev. Joseph Illo. Killing another is only condoned in self-defense, he said.
It is hypocritical for those who rely on their religion to support their pro-life views also not to oppose the death penalty. A life is a life and it is not their place to determine which are innocent and which are beyond redemption, particularly when the tenets of their religion provide that such decisions belong to their Maker.
I’d like to propose a small step toward ending the double standard. Any state that authorizes license plates to display the words “Choose Life” must do so at the top of the plate, with the phrase “End the Death Penalty” at the bottom.
Jeralyn Merritt is a member of The Washington Examiner Blog Board of Contributors and blogs TalkLeft.com.
