For the Sake of HIS Children????

I sat here listening to Carlie Brucia's murderer, Joseph Smith tearfully pleading for mercy from the Judge, not for himself, but so that his family does not have to suffer any more, and so that he can have contact with his children, and all I can think of is....

Carlie no longer has any contact with her family. Her mother can never see her daughter again...

I have never been a death penalty supporter. Never. No argument for it has ever changed my mind. I have always believed that a Life Sentence should MEAN life in prison without parole for murder. We have had that here in Wisconsin for a long time...

There were a few cases like Ted Bundy (and one in Wisconsin that I do not want to even think about....) where I felt that IF I could ever justify it... they may be the cases that may deserve it.

Then began a massive increase of child rape/murder cases, husbands killing wives and children cases, mothers murdering their children.....and it is getting worse. It seems to be spreading.

Add to that the fact that NOW, we start to see more and more prison breaks, escaped convicts, dangerous people... jail breaks...

And we watch child molesters getting short term sentences, not reporting their locations when on parole, family members or friends lying for them, supplying them with escape funds....

For the first time in my life, I am finding myself thinking... maybe, just maybe, there are cases that deserve NOTHING LESS than the death penalty. I think of Scott Peterson, with his smirk. The coldness there in his eyes. The seemingly total lack of concern that his son is dead, that his wife was dead.

I think of the young girls, Carlie Bruscia, Jessica Lunsford, Sarah Lunde and others over the years (including Cora Jones, Amy Breyer, and Lisa French, and others here in Wisconsin). I think of Susan Smith and her two innocent little boys that she drowned because her boyfriend had rejected her stating, among other things, that he would not raise another man's children.

Lori Hacking of Utah, who had told friends that she was pregnant just before her husband Mark killed her.... Laci Peterson and Connor, who did nothing to deserve to die. And now, Rachel Entwistle and her baby daughter Lillian, allegedly murdered by husband and father, Neil Entwistle....

The recent Six month sentence for a man who'd admitted to raping a little girl from aged 6-10.....

The list goes on and on and on.....


Catechism of the Catholic Church:

2266 The efforts of the state to curb the spread of behavior harmful to people's rights and to the basic rules of civil society correspond to the requirement of safeguarding the common good. Legitimate public authority has the right and duty to inflict punishment proportionate to the gravity of the offense. Punishment has the primary aim of redressing the disorder introduced by the offense. When it is willingly accepted by the guilty party, it assumes the value of expiation. Punishment then, in addition to defending public order and protecting people's safety, has a medicinal purpose: as far as possible, it must contribute to the correction of the guilty party.⁶⁷

2267 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 to 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 definitely 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 nonexistent."⁶⁸

As I sat here listening to Joseph Smith pleading for HIS life based on the needs of HIS FAMILY, thinking of all those others, remembering the prison escapes, knowing that there will be a lot of money spent trying to appeal the cases over the years .... I find myself thinking that we cannot really protect the children, the wives, and the others even by locking them up in prison for life.

Disjointed musings, I admit. But for the first time in my life, I find that thinking of the Death Penalty for these people almost sounds .... right.



For Ann and Scott Breyer, parents of Amy (Ann and her sister had been my Brownies, and had babysat for my 3 children at one time...) may God bless!


Related Tags: Death Penalty, Joseph Smith, Catechism of the Catholic Church, Catholic, Murder, Child Molester