PRO LIFE: THE DEATH PENALTY
The "pro-life" term was, originally, identified with the anti-abortion movement, which still seems the most appropriate context.
Based upon biblical and theological teachings, as well as secular realities, one can, reasonably and responsibly, find that an anti-death penalty view is not pro-life.
All sanctions are given because we value that which is being taken away. Whether it be fines, freedom or lives, in every case that we take things away, as legal sanction, it is because we value that which is taken away.
How can it be a sanction, if we do not value that which is taken away? It can't.
From: Dudley Sharp, independent researcher, death penalty expert, former opponent, 832-439-2113, CV at bottom
The "pro-life" term was, originally, identified with the anti-abortion movement, which still seems the most appropriate context.
Based upon biblical and theological teachings, as well as secular realities, one can, reasonably and responsibly, find that an anti-death penalty view is not pro-life.
All sanctions are given because we value that which is being taken away. Whether it be fines, freedom or lives, in every case that we take things away, as legal sanction, it is because we value that which is taken away.
How can it be a sanction, if we do not value that which is taken away? It can't.
Death Penalty: Pro Life Since Genesis 9:6
SUMMARY
There are two types of pro-life considerations. One is religious, the other secular and both support the other, in regard to the death penalty being pro-life.
I. Religious
For 4,500 years (biblical timeline), the death penalty has had a pro-life religious position (1), staring with Genesis 9:6. Anti-death penalty teachings did not occur, in major Christian denominations, until the 1950's, with the Roman Catholic Church not joining that chorus until 2018 (2).
Did the bible or basic theology, suddenly change? Of course not (3), as reviewed, in detail (3).
Through today and for more than 2000 years, there has been Christian New Testament support for the death penalty, from Genesis to Revelation, Jesus to St. Dismas, The Holy Ghost to Popes, Saints, Doctors and Fathers of the Church, church leadership, biblical scholars and theologians that, in breadth and depth, overwhelms any teachings to the contrary (2) particularly those wrongly dependent upon secular concerns such as defense of society, the poor standards of criminal justice systems in protecting the innocent and the alleged revelation of newly found dignity, which is 4500 years old.(2).
It must be noted that Pope Francis wants to end the death penalty, life imprisonment and solitary confinement, which means many more innocents will be harmed and murdered, by those known unjust aggressors, of which we are all, very, aware:
II. Secular
The death penalty/executions protect innocents, in six ways, better than does life without parole (LWOP) (4): enhanced due process, enhanced incapacitation, enhanced probability, in three ways, and enhanced deterrence (4):
a) Enhanced due process - No knowledgeable party disputes that the death penalty has the greatest of due process protections (5), what the US Supreme Court has called "super due process", meaning that actual innocents sentenced to LWOP are more likely to die as innocents in prison, by a huge margin, than are innocents likely to be executed. Even many death penalty opponents, publicly, agree. It is not, factually, disputed.
b) Enhanced incapacitation - Living murderers are, infinitely, more likely to harm and murder, again, than are executed murderers - No one disagrees.
Since 1973, about 20,000 ADDITIONAL innocents have been murdered by those KNOWN murderers that we have allowed to murder, again - recidivist murderers.
We MIGHT have proof of factually innocents executed, as recently as 1915.
c) Enhanced Probability:
1) About 5000 persons die, annually, within US criminal custody. We execute about 30 murderers/yr. By numbers and by lesser due process, we know that many more innocents will die in non-death penalty custody, than by execution, by a huge margin, further supported:
a) As some death penalty opponents, now, argue that LWOP is more cruel than execution, this takes on greater importance, as their position is to a) support the more cruel sanction, LWOP and with 2) all non-death penalty, in custody deaths with much higher numbers than by execution, thereby preferring more innocent deaths;
b) Since 1973, we have had about 500,000 ADDITIONAL innocents murdered by those KNOWN criminals that we have allowed to harm, again - recidivist criminals.
. . . . and as rapes, robberies and other assaults are some 7 times greater than murders, such would equate to . . .
c) Since 1973, 3.5 million ADDITIONAL innocents raped, robbed or otherwise assaulted by those KNOWN criminals that we have allowed to harm, again - recidivist criminals.
d) Possibly, we have proof of innocents executed, as recently as 1915.
Where are the innocents at risk, by the hugest of margins?
e) Executed criminals do not harm/murder, again,
2) Murderers have three choices: a) they can stay the same, very bad; b) they can become worse, very bad indeed; or c) they can become better, which can mean, still pretty bad, all the way to sainthood, meaning the probability of remaining a danger is much higher than the probability of becoming much better, or a continuing threat while in prison, after escape or after release.
3) If the death penalty is abolished and murderers can, only, receive a maximum sentence of LWOP, then they can murder as many as they wish, with no additional punishment.
Since 1973, for some perspective, we have had 900,000 murders and 60 million violent crimes, THAT WE KNOW OF.
It's not hard to see where the innocents are at risk, unless a fact avoiding anti-death penalty person.
d) Enhanced deterrence - All severe sanctions deter some. Never has the deterrent effect of the death penalty or any other severe sanction been negated. They cannot be.
The death penalty/execution is the most severe sanction.
The death penalty/execution is the most severe sanction.
Why do nearly 100% of murderers do all they can to avoid the death penalty and get life, instead? No, those murderers were not deterred, at least not that time, but they reflect the same basic nature that potential murderers and the rest of us do, which is:
Life is preferred over death. Death is feared more than life. What we prefer more, deters less. What we fear more, deters more. Rationally, indisputable.
The death penalty/executions are an enhanced deterrent over LWOP.
Life is preferred over death. Death is feared more than life. What we prefer more, deters less. What we fear more, deters more. Rationally, indisputable.
The death penalty/executions are an enhanced deterrent over LWOP.
Nobel Prize Laureate Gary Becker:
"(Becker) is the most important social scientist in the past 50 years (1964-2014) (The New York Times May 5, 2014). Becker was an economist, sociologist and empiricist at the U of Chicago.
“the evidence of a variety of types — not simply the quantitative evidence — has been enough to convince me that capital punishment does deter and is worth using for the worst sorts of offenses.” (Does Death Penalty Save Lives? A New Debate, by Adam Liptak, NY Times, NOV. 18, 2007)
"(Becker) is the most important social scientist in the past 50 years (1964-2014) (The New York Times May 5, 2014). Becker was an economist, sociologist and empiricist at the U of Chicago.
Would you rather "risk" saving more innocent lives or risk sacrificing more innocent lives? . . . those are your two choices.
FN
1) Pro Life: The Death Penalty
2) a) The Catholic Church & The Death Penalty
12 (14) Factual Errors: 2018 CCC 2267 amendment
b) Saint/Pope John Paul II marks the beginning of the Catholic Church's disastrous anti-death penalty run, 1995 forward, intentionally, avoiding the most basic of reason, research, fact checking and vetting, as detailed, throughout:
Pope John Paul II: His death penalty errors
3) Here are over 4000 pro death penalty philosophical, biblical and theological references, which either
a) support the death penalty or which
b) refute the biblical and theological objections to the death penalty.
Religion and The Death Penalty
4a) The Death Penalty: Saving More Innocent Lives
b) Deterrence, Death Penalties & Executions
https://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2019/04/deterrence-death-penalties-executions.html
https://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2019/04/deterrence-death-penalties-executions.html
5) a) Texas Death Penalty Procedures
b) THE DEATH PENALTY: LEAST ARBITRARY & CAPRICIOUS SANCTION
Both the guilty & the innocent have the greatest of protections
Both the guilty & the innocent have the greatest of protections
more
The Woman Caught in Adultery, the Death Penalty & John 8:2-11
Pre-Constantine Death Penalty Support
Judaism & the Death Penalty
New Testament Death Penalty Support Overwhelming
Quakers & The Death Penalty
A Refutation of the ELCA Social Statement on the Death Penalty
The Death Row "Exonerated"/"Innocent" Frauds
71-83% Error Rate in Death Row "Innocent" Claims, Well Known Since 2000
Forgiveness and Murder
"The Death Penalty: Neither Hatred nor Revenge"
many others
======
600+ pro death penalty quotes from murder victims' families &
3300+ from some of the greatest thinkers in history
======
Victim Services
Victims' Voices
======
Research, with sources, fact checking, vetting & critical thinking, as required of anyone within a public policy debate and which rebut all anti-death penalty claims.
Most will realize that the media has been using only anti-death penalty claims and , then, failed to fact check, vet, not use critical thinking, with that research, while avoiding all pro-death penalty research and experts, for decades. How do I know most will realize this? Because they wouldn't have seen any of this, prior:
The Death Penalty: Justice & Saving More Innocents
and
Students, Academics & Journalists: Death Penalty Research
(7 pro-death penalty experts listed)
