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I really don't believe in the death penalty because I believe in "Thou Shalt Not Kill". I do not believe that that kind of punishment is ours to perform.
F. CHRISTIANITY AND THE DEATH PENALTY
This section is included only to counter the false claim that there is no New Testament support for capital punishment.
1) Virtually all religious scholars agree that the correctly translated commandment "Thou shalt not murder" is a prohibition against individual cases of murder. There is no biblical prohibition against the government imposition of the death penalty in deserving cases. Indeed, the government imposition of capital punishment is required for deliberate murder. (Dr. Charles Ryrie, Biblical Answers to Contemporary Issues & The Ryrie Study Bible, Exodus 20:13).
2) " . . . pronouncements about divine behavior (in the Hebrew Bible) correlated in the judicial context to attitudes toward death as a proper punishment. Quite clearly, the New Testament carries on the earlier mentality." As Jesus described in the Sermon on the Mount, "Obedience will be rewarded with life; disobedience will be punished with destruction. A God who rewards with life and punishes with death is One whose laws provide for death as a judicial punishment." Dr. Baruch Levine, "Capital Punishment," p 31, What the Bible Really Says, ed. Smith & Hoffman, 1993.
3) "If no crime deserves the death penalty, then it is hard to see why it was fitting that Christ be put to death for our sins and crucified among thieves. St. Thomas Aquinas quotes a gloss of St. Jerome on Matthew 27: ‘As Christ became accursed of the cross for us, for our salvation He was crucified as a guilty one among the guilty.’ That Christ be put to death as a guilty person, presupposes that death is a fitting punishment for those who are guilty." Prof. Michael Pakaluk, The Death Penalty: An Opposing Viewpoints Series Book, Greenhaven Press, (hereafter TDP:OVS), 1991
4) "The same divine law which forbids the killing of a human being allows certain exceptions. Since the agent of authority is but a sword in the hand, and is not responsible for the killing, it is in no way contrary to the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’, for the representative of the State’s authority to put criminals to death, according to the Law or the rule of rational justice." St. Augustine, The City of God, Book 1, Chapter 21. See F.16
5) "The rejection of capital punishment is not to be dignified as a ‘higher Christian way’ that enthrones the ethics of Jesus. The argument that Jesus as the incarnation of divine love cancels the appropriateness of capital punishment in the New Testament era has little to commend it. Nowhere does the Bible repudiate capital punishment for premeditated murder; not only is the death penalty for deliberate killing of a fellow human being permitted, but it is approved and encouraged, and for any government that attaches at least as much value to the life of an innocent victim as to a deliberate murderer, it is ethically imperative." Dr. Carl F. H. Henry, Twilight Of A Great Civilization, Crossway, 1988, p 70,72. Father Pierre Lachance, O.P. (St, Anne Parish, Fall River, Mass.) fully concurs: "There is no question but that capital punishment was not only allowed but mandated in the Old Testament. In the New Law (New Testament) (St.) Paul recognizes the legitimacy of capital punishment . . .’It is not without purpose that the ruler carries the sword. He is God’s servant, to inflict his avenging wrath upon the wrongdoer Romans 13:4.’ " (TDP:OVS, 1986, pg. 8)
6) "It is because humans are created in the image of God that capital punishment for premeditated murder was a perpetual obligation. The full range of biblical data weighs in its favor. This is the one crime in the Bible for which no restitution was possible (Numbers 35:31,33). The Noahic covenant recorded in Genesis 9 ("Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. "Gen 9:6) antedates Israel and the Mosaic code; it transcends Old Testament Law, per se, and mirrors ethical legislation that is binding for all cultures and eras. The sanctity of human life is rooted in the universal creation ethic and thus retains its force in society. The Christian community is called upon to articulate standards of biblical justice, even when this may be unpopular. Capital justice is part of that non-negotiable standard. Society should execute capital offenders to balance the scales of moral judgement." From "Capital Punishment: A Personal Statement", by Charles W. Colson., a former opponent. He is spiritual advisor and friend to numerous death row inmates and the Founder of Prison Fellowship, the largest Christian ministry serving incarcerated prisoners. Ph.703-478-0100.
7) St. Thomas Aquinas finds all biblical interpretations against executions "frivolous", citing Exodus 22:18, "wrongdoers thou shalt not suffer to live". Unequivocally, he states," The civil rulers execute, justly and sinlessly, pestiferous men in order to protect the peace of the state." (Summa Contra Gentiles, III, 146.)
8) "God, Himself, instituted the death penalty (Genesis 9:6) and Christ regarded capital punishment as a just penalty for murder (Matthew 26:52). God gave to government the legitimate authority to use capital punishment to restrain murder and to punish murderers. Not to inflict the death penalty is a flagrant disregard for God’s divine Law which recognizes the dignity of human life as a product of God’s creation. Life is sacred, and that is why God instituted the death penalty. Consequently, whoever takes innocent human life forfeits his own right to live." Protestant scholar Rev. Reuben Hahn (Mt. Prospect, Ill.), Human Events, 3/2/85.
9) "The fact that the evil, as long as they live, can be corrected from their errors does not prohibit the fact that they may be justly executed, for the danger which threatens from their way of life is greater and more certain than the good which may be expected from their improvement. They also have at that critical point of death the opportunity to be converted to God through repentance. And if they are so stubborn that even at the point of death their heart does not draw back from evil, it is possible to make a highly probable judgement that they would never come away from evil to the right use of their powers." St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles, Book III, 146.
DEATH PENALTY AND SENTENCING INFORMATION
In the United States 10/1/97
By Dudley Sharp, Death Penalty Resources Director, Justice For All Pro-death penalty.com
Since the advent of DNA testing, there has been no proof of an innocent man/woman being executed in the USA.
You gotta be kidding me.
Are you (or prosecuter Steven Stewart) going to maintain, with clear conscience, that nobody in the history of justice has ever been framed or pressured to falsely confess, and then executed? (We won't go into lynchings.)
Quote:
The 100+ death row inmates "innocent", "exonerated" and released, as trumpeted by anti-death penalty activists, is a fraud. The actual number of factually innocent released death row inmates is closer to 40, and in any event should be considered in context of over 7,000 death sentences handed down since 1973.
The website below is not a fraud. The Innocence Project
If we were in danger, I would fight to the death for my own family.
But after the fact?
I cannot be in favor of the death penalty unless I can say that I myself could turn the switch, sign the warrant, give the injection.
I can't say that.
This thread is headed for Politics and Controversies.
No doubt someone else will come back with a bunch of anti-death penalty scripture.
The fact is that here on earth it is humanity's job to self-discipline.
"Dudley Sharp, Death Penalty Resources Director, Justice For All
Pro-death penalty.com"
Wow, he must be a fun guy to have a beer with.
I believe in the death penalty but oppose it here in the U.S. purely on economical grounds. By the time taxpayers have spent millions on legal fees for those that are condemned they (the bad guys) wind up dying of natural causes, dive head first off the third tier or get beaten to death on the prison playground. .
Many opponents present, as fact, that the cost of the death penalty is so expensive (at least $2 million per case?), that we must choose life without parole ("LWOP") at a cost of $1 million for 50 years. Predictably, these pronouncements may be entirely false. JFA estimates that LWOP cases will cost $1.2 million - $3.6 million more than equivalent death penalty cases.
There is no question that the up front costs of the death penalty are significantly higher than for equivalent LWOP cases. There also appears to be no question that, over time, equivalent LWOP cases are much more expensive - from $1.2 to $3.6 million - than death penalty cases. Opponents ludicrously claim that the death penalty costs, over time, 3-10 times more than LWOP.
U.S. Vital Statistics Abstract, 1994 and Capital Punishment 1995, BJS 1996.
Annual cost increases are based upon: 1) historical increases in prison costs, including judicial decisions regarding prison conditions, and the national inflation rate; 2) medical costs, including the immense cost of geriatric care, associated with real LWOP sentences; 3) injury or death to the inmate by violence; 4) injury or death to others caused by the inmate (3 and 4 anticipate no DP and that prisoners, not fearing additional punishment, other than loss of privileges, may increase the likelihood of violence. One could make the same assumptions regarding those on death row. The difference is that death row inmates will average 6 years incarceration vs. 50 years projected for LWOP); 5) the risk and the perceived risk of escape; and 6) the justifiable lack of confidence by the populace in our legislators, governors, parole boards and judges, i.e. a violent inmate will be released upon society.
$75,000 for trial and appeals cost, for DP-equivalent LWOP cases, assumes that the DP is not an option. We believe this cost estimate is very low. We have over-estimated that DP cases will cost twenty times more, on average, or $1.5 million. Our exaggerated estimate states that the DP will have twenty times more investigation cost, defense and prosecution cost, including voir dire, court time, guilt/innocence stage, sentencing stage and appellate review time and cost than DP equivalent LWOP cases. Even though we have greatly exaggerated the cost of DP cases, DP cases still prove to be significantly less expensive, over time, than the DP equivalent LWOP cases.
6 years on death row, prior to execution, reflects the new habeas corpus reform laws, at both the state and federal levels. Some anti-death penalty groups speculate that such time may actually become only 4 years. If so, then DP cases would cost even that much less than the DP equivalent LWOP cases. However, the average time on death row, for those executed from 1973-1994, was 8 years (Capital Punishment 1994, BJS, 1995). Therefore, 6 years seems more likely. Even using the 8 year average, the DP equivalent LWOP cases are still $1 million more expensive than their DP counterparts ($2 million @ 2% annual increase).
One of the USA’s largest death rows is in Texas, with 442 inmates, of which 229, or 52%, have been on death row over 6 years - 44, or 10%, have been on for over 15 years, 8 for over 20 years. 60 inmates, nationwide, have been on death row over 18 years. (as of 12/96).
This section is included only to counter the false claim that there is no New Testament support for capital punishment.
1) Virtually all religious scholars agree that the correctly translated commandment "Thou shalt not murder" is a prohibition against individual cases of murder. There is no biblical prohibition against the government imposition of the death penalty in deserving cases. Indeed, the government imposition of capital punishment is required for deliberate murder. (Dr. Charles Ryrie, Biblical Answers to Contemporary Issues & The Ryrie Study Bible, Exodus 20:13).
2) " . . . pronouncements about divine behavior (in the Hebrew Bible) correlated in the judicial context to attitudes toward death as a proper punishment. Quite clearly, the New Testament carries on the earlier mentality." As Jesus described in the Sermon on the Mount, "Obedience will be rewarded with life; disobedience will be punished with destruction. A God who rewards with life and punishes with death is One whose laws provide for death as a judicial punishment." Dr. Baruch Levine, "Capital Punishment," p 31, What the Bible Really Says, ed. Smith & Hoffman, 1993.
3) "If no crime deserves the death penalty, then it is hard to see why it was fitting that Christ be put to death for our sins and crucified among thieves. St. Thomas Aquinas quotes a gloss of St. Jerome on Matthew 27: ‘As Christ became accursed of the cross for us, for our salvation He was crucified as a guilty one among the guilty.’ That Christ be put to death as a guilty person, presupposes that death is a fitting punishment for those who are guilty." Prof. Michael Pakaluk, The Death Penalty: An Opposing Viewpoints Series Book, Greenhaven Press, (hereafter TDP:OVS), 1991
4) "The same divine law which forbids the killing of a human being allows certain exceptions. Since the agent of authority is but a sword in the hand, and is not responsible for the killing, it is in no way contrary to the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’, for the representative of the State’s authority to put criminals to death, according to the Law or the rule of rational justice." St. Augustine, The City of God, Book 1, Chapter 21. See F.16
5) "The rejection of capital punishment is not to be dignified as a ‘higher Christian way’ that enthrones the ethics of Jesus. The argument that Jesus as the incarnation of divine love cancels the appropriateness of capital punishment in the New Testament era has little to commend it. Nowhere does the Bible repudiate capital punishment for premeditated murder; not only is the death penalty for deliberate killing of a fellow human being permitted, but it is approved and encouraged, and for any government that attaches at least as much value to the life of an innocent victim as to a deliberate murderer, it is ethically imperative." Dr. Carl F. H. Henry, Twilight Of A Great Civilization, Crossway, 1988, p 70,72. Father Pierre Lachance, O.P. (St, Anne Parish, Fall River, Mass.) fully concurs: "There is no question but that capital punishment was not only allowed but mandated in the Old Testament. In the New Law (New Testament) (St.) Paul recognizes the legitimacy of capital punishment . . .’It is not without purpose that the ruler carries the sword. He is God’s servant, to inflict his avenging wrath upon the wrongdoer Romans 13:4.’ " (TDP:OVS, 1986, pg. 8)
6) "It is because humans are created in the image of God that capital punishment for premeditated murder was a perpetual obligation. The full range of biblical data weighs in its favor. This is the one crime in the Bible for which no restitution was possible (Numbers 35:31,33). The Noahic covenant recorded in Genesis 9 ("Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. "Gen 9:6) antedates Israel and the Mosaic code; it transcends Old Testament Law, per se, and mirrors ethical legislation that is binding for all cultures and eras. The sanctity of human life is rooted in the universal creation ethic and thus retains its force in society. The Christian community is called upon to articulate standards of biblical justice, even when this may be unpopular. Capital justice is part of that non-negotiable standard. Society should execute capital offenders to balance the scales of moral judgement." From "Capital Punishment: A Personal Statement", by Charles W. Colson., a former opponent. He is spiritual advisor and friend to numerous death row inmates and the Founder of Prison Fellowship, the largest Christian ministry serving incarcerated prisoners. Ph.703-478-0100.
7) St. Thomas Aquinas finds all biblical interpretations against executions "frivolous", citing Exodus 22:18, "wrongdoers thou shalt not suffer to live". Unequivocally, he states," The civil rulers execute, justly and sinlessly, pestiferous men in order to protect the peace of the state." (Summa Contra Gentiles, III, 146.)
8) "God, Himself, instituted the death penalty (Genesis 9:6) and Christ regarded capital punishment as a just penalty for murder (Matthew 26:52). God gave to government the legitimate authority to use capital punishment to restrain murder and to punish murderers. Not to inflict the death penalty is a flagrant disregard for God’s divine Law which recognizes the dignity of human life as a product of God’s creation. Life is sacred, and that is why God instituted the death penalty. Consequently, whoever takes innocent human life forfeits his own right to live." Protestant scholar Rev. Reuben Hahn (Mt. Prospect, Ill.), Human Events, 3/2/85.
9) "The fact that the evil, as long as they live, can be corrected from their errors does not prohibit the fact that they may be justly executed, for the danger which threatens from their way of life is greater and more certain than the good which may be expected from their improvement. They also have at that critical point of death the opportunity to be converted to God through repentance. And if they are so stubborn that even at the point of death their heart does not draw back from evil, it is possible to make a highly probable judgement that they would never come away from evil to the right use of their powers." St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles, Book III, 146.
DEATH PENALTY AND SENTENCING INFORMATION
In the United States 10/1/97
By Dudley Sharp, Death Penalty Resources Director, Justice For All Pro-death penalty.com
Your post is very informative and makes sense, but I said I BELIEVE in "Thou Shalt Not Kill" it is a matter of personal consience. I cannot tell you that if my life were in danger or my children, I would not kill to protect us, but I could not, in good concience, kill under any other circumstances. I was not suggesting that the bible condoned or rejected the death penalty. I was only expressing my belief and what the phrase means to me.
My stepmom was married to a very wonderful man before she married my daddy but life threw her a curve she never saw coming.
Quote:
Two ladies from Gowensville were selling vegetables from their garden at the crossroads nearly two years ago, one September evening. Jim was there, meeting folks who had called about his white SUV, an old truck which he had parked there with a For Sale sign in the window. As he always did, Jim sought to make new friends. He chatted with the produce sales ladies, and bought some okra.
A Tennessee man named David had the truck out for a test drive. David's common law wife, Jennifer, told Jim she was taking her child in their car to Landrum for a hamburger. For awhile that evening, the two would-be murderers were both gone from the scene, with the truck they had come to steal.
Why not take it then? Why return the next day to abduct and murder a gentle man, such an outstanding man?
It is the absurd, unexplainable meanness and stupidity of this horrible crime which sticks in the throat. Jennifer and David barely mounted a defense this past week. There were no real questions as to the facts. They very likely will pay with their lives. The jury began considering their life stories Sunday and, of course, Jim’s life story.
Jim’s widow, Cathy, told of her life with Jim, his children, his many civic and business involvements. She recalled last seeing him on the morning of his murder. He was washing some floor mats he had taken out of his pick-up, planning to throw them in with the SUV as a gesture of kindness to the poisonous couple who had given their names as Charlotte and Greg Hemlock. The cruelty which he met in return that morning defies understanding.
They found Jim stuffed in a fridge with his head wrapped in duct tape, not just his mouth as was originally reported to the press.
Also, while in jail the two planned to murder Jennifer's stepfather but the authorities intercepted the plan and used the info against them at the trial.
While the death penalty is still on the table, the two only got life imprisonment. However if they ever appeal or try for parole, the death penalty can be brought back as a possible option. So it is in their best interest to NEVER appeal and never attempt parole.
Btw, Jim was the third person they contacted that day. The first person never showed, the second one just happen to have someone with her. They were calling "vehicles for sale" listings in the local paper.
How they were found...Jennifer used a traceable cell phone.
YES, I believe in the death penalty. But sometimes it isn't the best option for the family of the victim. Liz
If we were in danger, I would fight to the death for my own family.
But after the fact?
I cannot be in favor of the death penalty unless I can say that I myself could turn the switch, sign the warrant, give the injection.
I can't say that.
That is a very good point! I think that is one of the things that makes people decide "for" or "against". I am for the death penalty for the same reason you are against it. If someone killed a member of my family or someone I loved I would PAY CASH to get to be the one who "turns the switch, signs the warrant, or gives the injection." The only thing that would make me mad at the execution would be that they wouldn't let me do it myself in a slow and painful way.
I know that isn't a good Christian attitude and probably wouldn't be a healthy forgiving one either but I don't think I would care. It isn't a pretty answer but that is how I honestly feel.
That is a very good point! I think that is one of the things that makes people decide "for" or "against". I am for the death penalty for the same reason you are against it. If someone killed a member of my family or someone I loved I would PAY CASH to get to be the one who "turns the switch, signs the warrant, or gives the injection." The only thing that would make me mad at the execution would be that they wouldn't let me do it myself in a slow and painful way.
I know that isn't a good Christian attitude and probably wouldn't be a healthy forgiving one either but I don't think I would care. It isn't a pretty answer but that is how I honestly feel.
That's pretty much how I feel, and it sums it up nicely.
I couldn't have made a better statement....
You gotta be kidding me.
Are you (or prosecuter Steven Stewart) going to maintain, with clear conscience, that nobody in the history of justice has ever been framed or pressured to falsely confess, and then executed? (We won't go into lynchings.)
That is not what I said. Read my statement, since the use of DNA, there is no credible proof of an innocent individual being executed. That is from the early 1990s, since the Death Penalty was reinstated in 1976, there is no credible evidence of an innocent individual being executed. Of the 100+ individuals used by anti-death penalty advocates that have gotten released from prison, none have been executed. Of these only 40 have been found to be not guilty by facts. The rest have been released due to legal technicalities, court rules, and defense posturing. That does not make them innocent.
Nobody said it was a fraud. The Innocence Project deals with all cases where DNA may prove innocence, not just death penalty cases. Once again there is no credible evidence to date that an innocent individual has been executed, do not confuse that with found guilty.
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