Tag Archives: Death Penalty
No Death Penalty? I’m not so sure…
He was convicted of 15 felonies. He was serving a 108 year sentence. He was let out. He went on to rape a 12 year old girl. He assaulted a police officer. He thought he was Jesus.
From The Seattle Times:
When Clemmons received the 60-year sentence, he was already serving 48 years on five felony convictions and facing up to 95 more years on charges of robbery, theft of property and possessing a handgun on school property. Records from Clemmons’ sentencing described him as 5-foot-7 and 108 pounds. The crimes were committed when he was 17.
Clemmons served 11 years before being released.
Deputies also interviewed other family members. They reported that Clemmons
had been saying he could fly and that he expected President Obama to visit to "confirm that he is Messiah in the flesh."
n 1990, Clemmons, then 18, was sentenced in Arkansas to 60 years in prison for burglary and theft of property, according to a news account in Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Newspaper stories describe a series of disturbing incidents involving Clemmons while he was being tried in Arkansas on various charges.
The Execution of a Sniper
John Allen Muhammad is scheduled to be executed tomorrow in Virginia. The U.S. supreme court denied an appeal from Muhammad’s lawyers.
This is a very difficult situation. I feel for the victims and their families but I do not believe that the death penalty is the answer.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states in Part 3 Section 2 Article 5:
Assuming that the guilty party’s identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.
If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people’s safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity with the dignity of the human person.
Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm—without definitively taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself—the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity “are very rare, if not practically non-existent.”
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