"My view: Death penalty disrespects human life," is an OpEd by Jean Hill in the Deseret News. Hill is a government liaison for the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City.
The recent Deseret News story on the use of the death penalty in Utah gives me some hope that, though the law remains on the books, Utah is truly moving away from vengeance as a legitimate goal in sentencing ("Is the death penalty dead in Utah," September 30).
In a modern society with the means to keep criminals incarcerated for life there are no longer compelling reasons to justify the death penalty. As Pope John Paul II stated in 1999, "the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done a great evil. Modern society has the means of protecting itself, without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform."
Or in the words of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, "the antidote to violence is love, not more violence." Capital punishment is of particular concern because it adopts the moral calculus of the killer, who regards killing as an acceptable, even as a necessary means to an end. Reliance on the death penalty diminishes us and is a sign of growing disrespect for human life. State-sanctioned murder still involves taking human life.
Earlier coverage from Utah begins at the link.
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