The Death Penalty

The Death Penalty

The death penalty is a very serious issue in our country. There are people who think it is a good form of punishment and should be kept. There are also people who believe it is a cruel and unusual punishment and should be rid of. As a catholic community, we should try to find out more about what our religions standpoint is on the matter and what others thing so we can have an open mind about this very serious issue.
The death penalty has been around since the 1700’s. Mostly used in Europe, people who betrayed the king would be killed by beheading. The European colonists brought their laws and customs to our country. One custom was putting criminals to death. The executions were public because the leaders wanted to set an example of the person being put to death. In the early days, the most common form of execution was hanging. A person would be hung for theft, murder and many other things. In 1830, Connecticut passed a law to make all executions take place inside a prison. After that most states did the same.


There are many reasons why people believe we should support the death penalty. The main reason is that if a person kills someone, they themselves should be put to death. Some people believe that the punishment fits the crime. Another reason people support the death penalty is because it costs less than life without parole (LWOP). It costs $34,200 a year per prisoner; so with LWOP; so with LWOP a person can be in prison for over 50 years and that can become costly. There is also the possibility that those prisoners can kill other inmates while in prison or even there guards. Some taxpayers who have to pay for prisoners would rather have those on death row executed so they won’t have to pay as much.


However, there are people who believe the death penalty is a cruel and unusual punishment. It is cruel because it is very painful way to die. The main forms of execution are the electric chair, hanging and lethal injection. These are all inhumane and no one deserves to die in such matter. Not many people know this but the Nazis invented lethal injection. A person can be on death row for years, imagine years of your life going by staying alive so you can eventually be killed.


A huge problem with the death penalty is that innocent people are being murdered by the government. It has been found that over 120 people on death row since 1973 were innocent at least 20 were innocent but convicted guilty and executed . 20 may sound like a small number but we should all be angry that innocent people lost their lives. Just like victims they were innocent and we killed them.

For decades The Catholic Church has been against the death penalty. In the eyes of the Catholic Church the death penalty is a sin that we commit as a country; it does not tolerate the behavior that threatens the lives of people or violates the lives of other people. It has often been quoted that the Bible says “an eye for an eye”; however, the Church does believe in justice for the victim of the crime but they do not seek vengeance. The Old Testaments presents a belief and tradition of the Catholic people that shows God’s love and his forgiveness. The Israelites created a covenant with God that had punishment as a requirement but intimately forgiveness was given. A key in the teachings of the Catholic religion is that we must defend the right to human life and human dignity. They believe that we are all created in the image and the likeness of God and even the cruelest of men still have the right to keep their humanity.

In an address to the first World Congress on death penalty in 2001 the Vatican made it clear they wish to abolish the death penalty and considered it “a sign of desperation” and stressed the need to defend the “integral of human life at every stage of development”. They also stated that we can maintain order and defend the safety of the public’s life with bloodshed and people correspond to the situation of common good and compliance of the human dignity.


We are all children of God; we have the God given right of free will and we are all aware of that. What we do with that right is up to us and it does affect on the society that we live in. But to kill someone as justice for taking another life is not right. What about the sixth commandment, “thou shall not kill”? Around 60 percent of our society seems to be okay with the death penalty. If one person kills another, they are considered murderers. As punishment for that we in turn kill that person; by lethal injection, by way of electric chair etc. And if by some chance that person is innocent, or even if they are not, and we kill them we are all murderers. Then for being murderers should we be killed too?