July 3
TEXAS:
Death penalty dropped for man charged in murder of Breanna Wood
Prosecutors say they will no longer be seeking the death penalty against the
main suspect in the death of 21 year old Breanna Wood, though there is no clear
indication as to why.
Wood's body was found in a box wrapped in plastic in an abandoned building off
FM 666 near Robstown in January of 2017,
28 year old Joseph Tejeda is facing capital murder charges for the fatal
shooting of Wood. He is also accused of hiding her body after telling police
officers he was offer $500 dollars to commit the crime. He is 1 of 6 other
defendants facing charges in the murder. Tejeda is set to go to trial in
September.
(source: KIII TV news)
NORTH CAROLINA:
Flurry of motions delays sentencing phase in Dixon capital murder case
A motion for Judge Greg Horne to recuse himself for the Nathaniel Dixon case
has been denied and so has a request for a mistrial in the death penalty case.
Last week, a jury found Dixon guilty of shooting and killing his pregnant
girlfriend, Candace Pickens, and severely injuring her 3-year-old son in May
2016.
Defense attorneys for the convicted murderer filed a motion that Horne recuse
himself, saying the judge had mishandled communications involving a juror.
Another judge, who temporarily took over proceedings, denied the request and
said Horne was the best judge for the job, given that he had presided over the
trial.
Horne then denied motions made by defense attorney Vicki Jayne, who repeatedly
argued for a mistrial. Her argument focused on a juror who inadvertently saw a
WLOS story on about a witness who had been killed after testifying in the Dixon
trial.
Horne questioned the juror, who had notified a bailiff after he saw the story
about Dixon’s former girlfriend Tiyquasha Simeul.
In open court Tuesday, Jayne said she’d received information that investigators
don't believe her client, Dixon, had any role in the killing, though she did
not say where she got the information.
She said at the time the juror saw the report, he only had the initial story to
go on. Jayne said the juror expressed concern over the killing to a bailiff and
she thought it could have influenced him in deliberations.
The bailiff then took the stand and testified he had communicated the
information to Horne. In court Monday, Horne apologized and said he didn’t have
any recollection of the bailiff communicating the information, but said he
didn’t find it warranted a mistrial.
Defense attorney Michael Casterline has been following the case and isn’t
surprised by the defense’s flurry of motions given the fact the case was
charged as a capital case.
“No one’s been put to death in a number of years in the state of North
Carolina,” Casterline said. “But, it’s still is the law, and, in theory, it
could happen. Obviously, a juror being aware of potentially prejudicial
information could affect how they feel about that case. So, I think they’re
probably doing what they need to do.”
Jayne also asked the judge to take the death penalty option off the table,
since the jury’s guilty verdict dictates an automatic life sentence for Dixon.
Legal motions delayed the start of the sentencing phase, which is now scheduled
to start at 9:30 a.m. Monday, July 22.
“I think in a criminal trial it could cut either way,” Casterline said. “It
could be beneficial to the defense in some ways, because it creates distance
from when they heard the evidence, or it could hurt them, as well."
In filing the multiple motions and repeatedly arguing for a mistrial, the
defense team made no apologies.
“I am fighting for my client's life,” Jayne said to the judge.
(source: WLOS news)
ALABAMA----female may face death penalty
Woman accused of killing 7-year-old Alabama boy pulled from burning home
A south Alabama woman has been charged with capital murder in the death of her
boyfriend’s 7-year-old son, whose body was pulled from the family’s burning
mobile home Sunday morning.
Jacqueline “Pat” Stewart, 45, of McIntosh, is being held in the Washington
County Jail in connection with the death of Case Trae Ketchum. Stewart, who was
initially held on a 48-hour investigative hold, was arrested on the murder
charge Monday, according to NBC 15 in Mobile.
Case died of blunt force trauma, according to court documents obtained by the
news station. The documents state he was killed on or about the morning of the
fire.
Firefighters with the McIntosh Volunteer Fire Department responded to the
family’s home around 5:20 a.m. Sunday, where they found the house in flames.
According to department officials, they were able to enter the trailer and pull
the boy out.
Case was already dead when they pulled his body from the fire.
According to AL.com, Stewart was outside the home by the time firefighters
arrived. Case’s father, Jesse Ketchum, and another child were out of town when
Case died, NBC 15 reported.
Police officials in the tiny town of McIntosh sought the help of the larger
Washington County Sheriff’s Office in investigating the boy’s death, the news
station said. Stewart was initially released from custody but was called back
in for questioning Monday.
She left the building in handcuffs, the station reported.
Washington County Sheriff Richard Stringer declined to offer more details of
the evidence against Stewart but told NBC 15 more information would likely be
released in the coming days. A gag order has been put in place to keep those
involved in the case from otherwise speaking with the media about the case.
Stewart is being held without bond in the county jail. If convicted of capital
murder, she will be eligible for the death penalty.
(source: WSB TV news)
INDIANA:
Death penalty dropped in Jeffersonville murder, cannibalism case
The death penalty has been taken off the table for a man accused of murdering
his girlfriend and eating her body parts.
Joseph Oberhansley is charged with mutilating and murdering Tammy Jo Blanton,
46, on September 11, 2014, in her Jeffersonville home.
Attorneys for Oberhansley said they reached an agreement with prosecutors in
which Oberhansley will withdraw his insanity plea in exchange and not present
any mental health evidence in his defense. In exchange, the state will seek a
life sentence without parole.
The motion was agreed to on June 28.
(source: WAVE news)
KENTUCKY:
Kentucky judge declares state's death penalty protocol unconstitutional
A Kentucky judge has struck down the state's death penalty protocol as
unconstitutional because it does not explicitly prohibit the execution of
prisoners with intellectual disabilities.
Ruling on a motion brought by a dozen inmates on death row, Franklin Circuit
Judge Phillip Shepherd ruled Tuesday that the regulation is invalid because it
doesn't automatically suspend an execution when the state corrections
department’s internal review shows a condemned person has an intellectual
disability.
Granting a motion filed by the Department of Public Advocacy, Shepherd said the
state's rules are flawed because they would allow a prisoner with intellectual
disabilities to be executed if he or she declines further appeals.
The U.S. Supreme Court “categorically prohibits the execution of intellectually
disabled persons,” Shepherd noted.
Assistant Public Advocate David Barron said all executions in Kentucky already
had been stayed because of questions about the state's means of lethal
injection, as well as other issues. Tuesday's ruling continues that stay, he
said.
Barron called the opinion "a sound ruling that recognizes what we have been
arguing for years."
He said the corrections department has “doggedly persisted” in refusing to
recognize the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling 17 years ago by taking “reasonable
steps to ensure that an intellectually disabled person is not executed.”
The Kentucky attorney general’s office, which defended the regulations, is
reviewing the ruling, spokesman Kenneth Mansfield said.
3 inmates, Thomas Bowling, Brian Keith Moore and Ralph Baze, filed challenges
to the execution regulations in 2006. Bowling died of cancer in 2015.
The Kentucky Supreme Court has said that “imposing this harshest of punishments
upon an intellectually disabled person violates his or her inherent dignity as
a human being.”
(source: Courier Journal)
NEVADA:
Nevada judge overturns death sentence in 1994 good Samaritan murder case
A federal judge recently overturned the death penalty sentence for Avram Nika,
convicted in 1994 of killing a man who had stopped to help Nika with his car.
Last month, U.S. District Judge James Mahan upheld the guilty verdict against
Nika, 49, for murdering Fallon resident Edward Smith. But Mahan ruled that
Nika's defense didn't present a full picture of his circumstances that might've
swayed a jury against voting for the death penalty.
The Nevada Attorney General’s Office has 60 days to file a response. They can
either impose a non-capital sentence or grant him a new penalty-phase trial,
which means jury selection would need to start within 180 days. Nika’s public
defenders declined to comment on the case.
A look back
Authorities arrested Nika after a Southern Pacific brakeman found Smith’s body
next to a barbed-wire fence 20 miles east of Reno.
His pants were hanging from the fence, and his wallet was left untouched next
to his body. He had been beaten on the head and then shot point-blank in the
forehead.
Nika had dragged the body toward the fence and then left in Smith’s 1983 BMW,
according to court documents.
Several witnesses testified they saw Nika standing next to his brown Chrysler
along I-80 the night before Smith’s body was discovered.
Nika had left his wife and his home in Aptos, Calif., to visit his sick mother.
He planned to travel to Chicago and then fly to Romania.
After driving 5 hours to Reno, his car broke down. Witnesses described seeing
Nika’s car with the hood up. They also described seeing Nika lying underneath
the front of the vehicle, apparently checking the engine.
Several people stopped to offer him a ride, but Nika refused their help.
Instead, he asked them to send a tow truck.
Smith lived in Fallon but worked part-time at a Burger King in Reno. His wife,
Tracy Smith, testified he had made plans to watch a movie with his family the
night he was killed.
(source: Reno Gazette Journal)
CALIFORNIA----female may face dath penalty
Mother charged in 12-year-old son's drowning death; 2nd son in coma
Prosecutors could seek the death penalty against a California mother accused of
drowning her son and trying to drown her younger son.
On Tuesday afternoon, District Attorney Tim Ward filed a 4-count complaint
against Sherri Telnas, 45, of Strathmore. The charges shed light on the
"horrific" scene in rural Tulare County.
Telnas faces 1 count of murder with the special circumstance of lying in wait,
1 count of attempted murder causing great bodily injury, 1 count of gassing,
and 1 count of battery on a peace officer.
Telnas' 12-year-old son, Jackson Telnas, died after being submerged in water,
according to deputies.
Telnas' younger son Jacob Ray Telnas, 7, remains in a coma at Valley Children's
Hospital. He's listed in critical condition.
The charge that Telnas was lying in wait before allegedly killing her son means
she is eligible for the death penalty. However, California Gov. Gavin Newsom
recently signed a memorandum ending the death penalty. That could limit
prosecutors to seeking life in prison without parole.
The deadly incident was reported around 5:25 a.m. Saturday at a home in
Strathmore.
A caller told 911 dispatchers that a woman, later identified as Telnas, was
acting "strangely" and had taken her boys to a field across the street from
their home.
While deputies were on their way to the area, they were told the boys were
found in a full irrigation canal near a cornfield. The children weren't
breathing, according to deputies.
The boys were rushed to the nearest hospital in Porterville. Jackson died there
and Jacob was transferred to Valley Children's in Madera. In the complaint,
prosecutors claim Telnas caused the child to go into a coma due to a brain
injury.
When deputies arrived, they spotted Telnas trying to run away. While trying to
arrest Telnas, deputies say she fought back.
It's unclear what happened during the struggle, but gassing is described as
throwing human excrement or bodily fluids at a peace officer.
"Unfortunately, we can't get into the facts at this time," said Stuart
Anderson, spokesman for the district attorney.
Telnas is linked, according to The Missoulian newspaper, to a near-drowning of
Jackson in Montana in 2008.
Telnas was 34 at the time. Tulare County sheriff's detectives are working on
gathering information on that crime.
Telnas was sentenced in 2009 to 10 years under the custody of Montana’s human
services department for trying to drown her then 10-month-old son, according to
public records. She was released in 2016.
She was later granted custody of her son, who had been in the care of his
father.
Telnas was arraigned Tuesday at Tulare County Pretrial Facility. Currently, she
is being held without bail.
(source: USA Today)
******************
Suspected gang member charged in slaying of USC student Victor McElhaney
A suspected gang member has been charged in the killing of a USC student during
an attempted robbery in March, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s
office announced Tuesday.
Ivan Hernandez, 23, is charged with 1 count of murder, according to court
records. The charge includes a special circumstance allegation that the crime
occurred during the commission of a robbery and while Hernandez was an active
participant in a street gang, the Ghetto Boyz, authorities said. The charge
makes him subject to the death penalty.
Hernandez, who also faces a count of attempted robbery, is accused of shooting
and killing Victor McElhaney, 21, about a mile from campus on March 10.
Investigators said at the time that McElhaney and a group of his friends had
walked from a nearby home to a strip-mall liquor store at Maple Avenue and
Adams Boulevard at about 12:30 a.m. A group of 3 or 4 men approached the
students in the parking lot and demanded cash and other valuables, police said.
Detectives believe that McElhaney was shot when he objected to the robbery
attempt. He was hospitalized in critical condition and died a couple of hours
later.
McElhaney was a student of USC’s Thornton School of Music and the son of
Oakland Councilwoman Lynette Gibson McElhaney. His death stunned the community.
Faculty remembered the jazz studies major as an extraordinarily talented
drummer who was an active member of USC’s Center for Black Cultural and Student
Affairs. He’d attended Cal State East Bay and worked as an instructor at
Oakland Public Conservatory of Music before transferring to USC in the fall of
2017.
A $75,000 reward had been offered — $50,000 by the Los Angeles City Council and
$25,000 by the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors — for information leading to
the arrest of those responsible for McElhaney's death. It wasn’t immediately
clear whether police were continuing to search for other suspects in connection
with the crime.
Hernandez, of South Los Angeles, was arrested Friday and is being held on
$2-million bail, according to police records. He was initially expected to be
arraigned Tuesday, but the court date was postponed until Aug. 7.
(source: Los Angeles Times)
USA:
At
https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/publications/criminaljustice/2019/capital_
punishment_2019.pdf [www.americanbar.org], you can find my 87-page chapter on
recent capital punishment developments.
The chapter is part of a publication of the American Bar Association’s Section
of Criminal Justice:
The State of Criminal Justice 2019. The complete book will soon be available
for purchase at:
https://www.americanbar.org/products
This year’s chapter is updated through mid-April 2019, plus the May 30
abolition of NH’s death penalty and my forecast of the outcome of Flowers
(decided June 21 by the Supreme Court).
(source: Ron Tabak)
***********************
Activists Hold Annual Fast Outside Supreme Court to Protest Death Penalty
George White says he never thought much about capital punishment until he was
wrongfully convicted, sentenced to life-in-prison and narrowly escaped death
row.
“An innocent man or woman can be convicted of something they didn’t do in this
country. That happened to me,” said White.
“34 years ago at my place of business, my wife and I were shot multiple times
by an armed robber and left for dead. 16 months later I was indicted, arrested
and charged with the murder but for the grace of God and the fact that I had an
all-White jury, that’s why I didn’t get the death penalty. I looked too much
like they did. And that’s wrong. That’s wrong,” he added.
The majority of prisoners sentenced to death are in fact guilty of gruesome
crimes but the evidence that proved White’s innocence was eventually uncovered.
He now advocates for the elimination of the death penalty at an annual
demonstration where activists like him spend several days fasting outside of
the Supreme Court.
“I think people like myself who have lost loved ones to murder, who are opposed
to the cycle of violence continuing even through the death penalty, it’s
important for us to tell our stories, said Rev. Jack Sullivan Jr., Executive
Director of the Ohio Council of Churches. Sullivan’s sister, Jennifer Ann
McCoy, was murdered 22 years ago. The perpetrator has still not been caught.
“We’re here to say, don’t kill in our names. Don’t execute in our names,” he
added.
Earlier this year the Supreme Court bumped the case of convicted murderer Larry
Lamont White back to the lower court in Kentucky. They want the court to look
again at his claim of an intellectual disability as a reason to spare his life.
Though support for capital punishment is far lower than it was just 2 decades
ago, most Americans still favor it including many in the law enforcement
community like the Fraternal Order of Police.
“People can continue to disagree with us but they can’t dismiss the
experience,” said White.
According to the Pew Research Center, 54% of Americans favor the death penalty
for people convicted of murder.
There are currently 29 prisoners in Kentucky on death row.
The last person to be executed in the Commonwealth was Marco Allen Chapman in
2008.
(source: spectrumnews1.com)
***************************
The Law and Jesus: How Christ’s Fulfillment Of The Law Should Lead Us To Reject
The Death Penalty
Jesus came to fulfill the law. “Think not that I have come to abolish the law
and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. For
truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot,
will pass from the law until all is accomplished” (Matt. 5:17-18 RSV). What he
taught, what he expected from his disciples, flowed out of the law and the
prophets.
Nonetheless, some might object to this, showing texts in which he appears to
contradict the dictates of the law, such as when he said:
“You have heard that it was said, `An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’
But I say to you, Do not resist one who is evil. But if any one strikes you on
the right cheek, turn to him the other also; and if any one would sue you and
take your coat, let him have your cloak as well; and if any one forces you to
go 1 mile, go with him 2 miles. Give to him who begs from you, and do not
refuse him who would borrow from you (Matt. 5:38-42 RSV).
When interpreting Scripture, be it the words of the Torah or the words of
Jesus, we must look beyond the words themselves. We must discern the intended
meaning of those words. That is, we must not be fixated on the words
themselves. When Jesus said he fulfilled the law and the prophets, he meant
that he fulfilled their purpose. He said what he thought would help his
followers fulfill the goal of the law and the prophets. When he seems to
disagree with the law and prophets, the disagreement is only in externals, in
the letter and not the spirit of the law. To fulfill that spirit, sometimes he
would tell his disciples something new, that is, to go beyond what Moses
allowed, as is seen in the above passage. But we must not think he does so
without precedent: in the book of Proverbs, we can see Jesus’ words were
foreshadowed: “Do not say, ‘I will do to him as he has done to me; I will pay
the man back for what he has done’” (Prov. 24:29 RSV).
St. Augustine, understanding this, suggested that when we look at Jesus’ words
in relation to what was established in the Torah, we can see a continuum of
teaching. Moses points us in the right direction, while Jesus offers us the
second point of reference by which we can properly establish the conclusion we
should seek via triangulation. Instead of seeing Moses as establishing a law of
retributive justice, he set the stage by which vengeance would be overcome by
forgiveness, and Jesus himself highlighted that point through his
interpretation of the law:
And therefore he who pays back just as much as he has received already forgives
something: for the party who injures does not deserve merely as much punishment
as the man who was injured by him has innocently suffered. And accordingly this
incomplete, by no means severe, but [rather] merciful justice, is carried to
perfection by Him who came to fulfil the law, not to destroy it. Hence there
are still 2 intervening steps which He has left to be understood, while He has
chosen rather to speak of the very highest development of mercy. For there is
still what one may do who does not come fully up to that magnitude of the
precept which belongs to the kingdom of heaven; acting in such a way that he
does not pay back as much, but less; as, for instance, 1 blow instead of 2, or
that he cuts off an ear for an eye that has been plucked out. He who, rising
above this, pays back nothing at all, approaches the Lord’s precept, but yet he
does not reach it.[1] Once this point is understood, then it is easy to see how
Jesus’ proclamation served as the fulfillment of the law because he took away
from us all notions of vengeance. The law, following the words of St. Paul,
helped educate humanity. Before the law, humanity did not have a proper sense
of how to react to injustice; those who felt like they had been harmed by
someone else could respond by inflicting a greater injury in return. This would
easily result in a never-ending cycle of vengeance, as those who seek revenge
would inflict greater and greater evils upon each other. With the law, the
cycle of vengeance was put to an end, putting a limit to the kind of response
which can be given. But then, because we are told forgo disproportionate
retribution, we are also being trained to forgive, to overcome the anger and
resentment which promotes such vengeance. Thus, we are meant to learn the value
of forgiveness and grace so that we can move beyond desiring reciprocal harm
done to those who injure us; instead, we should seek a restoration of what was
lost. The and prophets, as well as Jesus, teach us mercy instead of strict
retributive justice, which is exactly what we need in relation to our sins. By
overcoming hostility and the desire for vengeance, we imitate the mercy of God,
serving as a witness of what is possible at the eschatological judgment: “The
Lord wants the hope of our faith, which stretches towards eternity, to be
proven by our own deeds so that the tolerance of overlooking an injury may
serve as a witness to the future judgment.”[2]
The call to mercy, the call to forgiveness, flows from the law because it
points to the disposition God wanted for us when dealing with injury. “Be
merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (Lk. 6:36 RSV). It is mercy, not
vengeance, which we must seek. We are to leave the judgment up to God:
Repay no one evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of
all. If possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all.
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God; for it is
written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord” (Rom. 12: 17-19 RSV).
This message, this call to mercy, is found throughout the New Testament, and we
are told, if we follow through with it, we will receive a blessing from God:
“Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love of the brethren, a
tender heart and a humble mind. Do not return evil for evil or reviling for
reviling; but on the contrary bless, for to this you have been called, that you
may obtain a blessing” (1Prtr. 3:8-9 RSV).
The Gospel message of mercy, of overcoming the retributive justice of an “eye
for an eye,” therefore flows from the original intent of God by the pedagogy of
the Mosaic Law. The letter of the law, when examined closely, would be
impossible to follow, making it nonsense, as Vladimir Solovyov indicated:
The intrinsic, nonsensical nature of the doctrine of retribution or “vengeful
justice” is brilliantly highlighted by the fact that besides only a few
apparent cases, it has no relation at all to existing criminal laws; that is,
it cannot be applied in reality. If juridical practice conformed to this
doctrine, then a thief’s punishment would have to be that he is robbed.
Although this may in general be possible, it is always unworthy and sometimes
also impracticable – to wit: in those frequent cases when theft is committed by
an individual in need. But in other crimes it is not even possible to devise a
method of equal retribution. By what equal action is it possible to get even
with a counterfeit, a false witness, a seducer of minors, a bigamist, or a
person who moves land markers after a survey? [3] The law was useful because it
helped set the stage by which sin could become limited; but the problem with
retribution is that those who give it out will find that they have not
reestablished justice but rather caused more injury to others, others who will
then respond in kind. Instead of encouraging a cycle of retributive violence,
the intent to stop such violence is fulfilled only by letting go of any
retaliation: “By removing reciprocation, our Lord is cutting off the
commencement of sins. In the Law there is retribution; in the Gospel, grace; in
the Law faults are corrected; in the Gospel the beginnings of sins are
removed.”[4]
Understanding this point, we begin to see that we are expected to grow up, to
mature in our understanding and application of mercy and grace. Humanity is
expected to learn the lesson of the law, and its interpretation by Jesus, so
that we get beyond the “eye for an eye” mentality, a mentality which Solovyov
explained relates to the perspective found of infants:
The criminal law theory of absolute guilt and equal retribution, with all its
refinements, grew from the soil of the most infantile notions and is only an
alteration of the primeval, uncivilized view. An understanding of the absolute
or total guilt of the individual criminal, while it did not stand out in its
subjective features was, however, present in this view. When the barbarians of
the Middle Ages tried and punished animals, they obviously considered them to
be entirely guilty, ascribing to them a few, malicious will: similarly, now,
when an infant bruises himself against a wooden bench, he considers it
completely responsible for his bruise and tries to impose upon it equal
retribution.[5]
Jesus, far from denying the value of the law, recognized the value of the law,
understanding how it helped shape humanity for the greater truth of mercy. Once
we realize this, we can even understand how the law of Moses, in its literal
form, was good for the time and place in which it was established, discerning
that we must follow through and realize its point, no longer restrained by the
mere letter of the law. When the Christian faith examines the point of the law,
and says something which seems to contradict the letter of the law, we must be
attuned to the point of the law and see if what is being promoted properly
fulfills that point. For example, when we are told that the death penalty
itself violates the highly developed moral character of the Christian faith,
pointing to the letter of the law of Moses and using it to counter the spirit
is disingenuous, even as it would be for those who would quote Moses against
Jesus to support a continuation of the retributive justice found in the Torah.
For as what Moses established put forth a limit to the cycle of violence by
limiting the response due to an injury, so the way executions were allowed by
the law limited the power of the state to execute criminals. The purpose was to
train us, to teach us to think beyond the use of death, and this can be seen in
the way God set up sanctuary cities in Israel to prevent absolutizing the death
penalty itself.
In following through with the point, comprehending that we are to limit (and
not find excuses for) the execution of criminals, the fulfillment of the law is
to remove all such executions, to see the wielding of death by anyone is
morally detrimental to society as a whole. The spirit of the law brings grace
and life; the letter of the law, when the point of the law is ignored, leads to
death; it is not the fault of the law, but the fault of those who misunderstand
the law and want to use a good for an evil end which must be rejected. We are
called to develop a greater moral sensibility, and this is exactly what has
happened. St. John Paul II correctly stated that behind the dictates of the law
is the dignity of the human person and the “inviolability of human life”:
The commandment regarding the inviolability of human life reverberates at the
heart of the “ten words” in the covenant of Sinai (cf. Ex 34:28). In the first
place that commandment prohibits murder: “You shall not kill” (Ex 20:13); “do
not slay the innocent and righteous” (Ex 23:7). But, as is brought out in
Israel’s later legislation, it also prohibits all personal injury inflicted on
another (cf. Ex 21:12-27). Of course we must recognize that in the Old
Testament this sense of the value of life, though already quite marked, does
not yet reach the refinement found in the Sermon on the Mount. This is apparent
in some aspects of the current penal legislation, which provided for severe
forms of corporal punishment and even the death penalty. But the overall
message, which the New Testament will bring to perfection, is a forceful appeal
for respect for the inviolability of physical life and the integrity of the
person. It culminates in the positive commandment.[6]
The law trains us to respect life; the law trains us to think beyond simplistic
vengeance. The law is fulfilled when human life is respected, when even those
who we think deserve no mercy receive the mercy of life. Christianity, and the
world at large, has taken a long time to understand this point, and yet that is
to be expected: our understanding of the dictates of the moral law develops in
history, not apart from it:
Every discrete effort of the person, every step of moral activity, is an
approach to the absolute, a moment of the realization of the moral ideal. But
only in the combined work of many, in the collective process of history, is an
absolute morality objectified. With such a view the process of history is also
the process of the creation of an absolute morality.[7]
The process by which the death penalty has been rejected by modern humanity as
being immoral began with the law of Moses. The perfection of the law is peace,
the peace which no longer seeks vengeance but rehabilitation of those who do
wrong. For Christians presenting this in the world, in the development of our
understanding of the implications of Christ’s teaching and what they truly mean
for us, we begin to point out and explain what had been lacking in previous
ages. God is love, and desires not the death of the sinner, but their
salvation; in the eschatological judgment, God wills not death but
rehabilitation. The call of the Christian is to live this out in history, to
establish rehabilitative justice in history. The dismantling of the death
penalty is a part of the process. There are many challenges which come out of
this. It will not be easy, but who said doing good was going to be easy?
[1] St. Augustine, “Our Lords Sermon on the Mount” in NPNF1(6):25.
[2] St. Hilary of Poitiers, Commentary on Matthew. Trans. D.H. Williams
(Washington, DC: CUA Press, 2012), 71.
[3] Vladimir Soloviev, “Criminal Law. Its Genesis. A Critique of The Theory of
Retribution and Deterrence” in Politics, Law & Morality. Trans. Vladimir
Wozniuk (New Haven: Yale, 2000), 166.
[4] St. Jerome, Commentary on Matthew. Trans. Thomas P. Scheck (Washington, DC:
CUA Press, 2008), 84.
[5] Vladimir Soloviev, “Criminal Law. Its Genesis. A Critique of The Theory of
Retribution and Deterrence,” 161.
[6] St. John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae. Vatican translation. ¶40.
[7] D.E. Zhukovskii, “On the Question of Moral Creativity” in Problems of
Idealism: Essays in Russian Social Philosophy. Trans. Randall A. Poole (New
Haven: Yale University Press, 2003), 434.
(source: Henry Karlson, patheos.com)
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