I have no particular preference for the death penalty. I lean toward allowing prisoners the rest of their lives to prove their innocence.
Ok. Here's another one:jruegg wrote: ↑22 Feb 2023, 14:06Something like that. I also figured it was important to actually bring in Scripture to the THEOLOGY board.
The Leftist lexicon is notorious for twisting language. "Social justice" has nothing to do with justice, of course. In general, it is all about establishing new social hierarchies, usually in disruptive ways.
And Psalm 137:9.Biff wrote: ↑22 Feb 2023, 21:35Ok. Here's another one:
1 Chronicles 26:18
18 As for the Parbar on the west, there were four on the highway and two at the Parbar.
Super important.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis gestures during a news conference, Jan. 26, 2023, in Miami. Gov. DeSantis has signed a bill ending a unanimous jury requirement in death penalty sentencing, a response to a verdict that spared the life of a school shooter who killed 17 people. DeSantis, a Republican, signed the bill in a private ceremony Thursday, April 20, 2023. (Credit: Marta Lavandier/ AP)
NEW YORK — Catholic organizations have called a new Florida law that ends the unanimous jury requirement in death penalty sentencing “stunning” and a “thinly veiled attack on human life,” while the state’s governor and potential 2024 presidential contender argues the law allows proper justice to be served.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill April 20 that allows capital punishment in Florida with a jury recommendation of at least 8–4 in favor of the death sentence, replacing the state’s previous unanimous requirement for such cases.
In response, Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, executive director of the anti-capital punishment organization Catholic Mobilizing Network, called the move deeply disturbing.
“SB 450 … will cause chaos and needless suffering for victims’ families, people on death row, and current and future capital defendants,” Murphy said in a statement. “In no uncertain terms, DeSantis has signed into law a thinly veiled attack on human life.”
The Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a statement that it’s “stunning” that DeSantis and the Florida legislature would reverse the “common-sense” law from just six years ago that required an unanimous agreement from a jury to sentence someone to death.
The bill received bipartisan support from the Florida legislature.
DeSantis, a Republican, has advocated for the legislation ever since a divided jury voted 9–3 last October in the case of Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz, sparing him from the death penalty. The verdict angered victims’ families, as Cruz instead received a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
[…]
DeSantis signed the new law in a private ceremony with families of Parkland victims.
“Once a defendant in a capital case is found guilty by a unanimous jury, one juror should not be able to veto a capital sentence,” DeSantis said in a statement. “I’m proud to sign legislation that will prevent families from having to endure what the Parkland families have and ensure proper justice will be served in the state of Florida.”
The law makes Florida one of three states out of the 27 that impose the death penalty that do not require unanimity for a death sentence. Alabama allows a 10–2 decision. Missouri and Indiana leave the decision to a judge where there is a divided jury.
Murphy argues the new law will make Florida’s shaky history with capital punishment worse: “Racial bias and wrongful conviction are rampant in Florida’s death penalty. Both will almost certainly be exacerbated with the allowance of non-unanimous death sentencing,” she said.
Since 1973, Florida has exonerated 30 people on death row, the most in the country, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit research organization that opposes capital punishment. Texas is second with 16 such exonerations.
Murphy also alleges political motives behind DeSantis’ decision, especially considering up until this past February Florida went almost four years without an execution.
“It is revealing that Governor DeSantis is now suddenly pushing full-force to expand Florida’s death penalty, just as he’s expected to formally announce a presidential bid,” Murphy said. “The death penalty should not be used to score political points. Human beings should not be used as political pawns — including human beings on death row.”
Wosbald wrote: ↑25 Apr 2023, 08:40 +JMJ+
Catholics blast DeSantis move on death penalty as ‘stunning’ attack on human life
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis gestures during a news conference, Jan. 26, 2023, in Miami. Gov. DeSantis has signed a bill ending a unanimous jury requirement in death penalty sentencing, a response to a verdict that spared the life of a school shooter who killed 17 people. DeSantis, a Republican, signed the bill in a private ceremony Thursday, April 20, 2023. (Credit: Marta Lavandier/ AP)
NEW YORK — Catholic organizations have called a new Florida law that ends the unanimous jury requirement in death penalty sentencing “stunning” and a “thinly veiled attack on human life,” while the state’s governor and potential 2024 presidential contender argues the law allows proper justice to be served.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill April 20 that allows capital punishment in Florida with a jury recommendation of at least 8–4 in favor of the death sentence, replacing the state’s previous unanimous requirement for such cases.
In response, Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, executive director of the anti-capital punishment organization Catholic Mobilizing Network, called the move deeply disturbing.
“SB 450 … will cause chaos and needless suffering for victims’ families, people on death row, and current and future capital defendants,” Murphy said in a statement. “In no uncertain terms, DeSantis has signed into law a thinly veiled attack on human life.”
The Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a statement that it’s “stunning” that DeSantis and the Florida legislature would reverse the “common-sense” law from just six years ago that required an unanimous agreement from a jury to sentence someone to death.
The bill received bipartisan support from the Florida legislature.
DeSantis, a Republican, has advocated for the legislation ever since a divided jury voted 9–3 last October in the case of Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz, sparing him from the death penalty. The verdict angered victims’ families, as Cruz instead received a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
[…]
DeSantis signed the new law in a private ceremony with families of Parkland victims.
“Once a defendant in a capital case is found guilty by a unanimous jury, one juror should not be able to veto a capital sentence,” DeSantis said in a statement. “I’m proud to sign legislation that will prevent families from having to endure what the Parkland families have and ensure proper justice will be served in the state of Florida.”
The law makes Florida one of three states out of the 27 that impose the death penalty that do not require unanimity for a death sentence. Alabama allows a 10–2 decision. Missouri and Indiana leave the decision to a judge where there is a divided jury.
Murphy argues the new law will make Florida’s shaky history with capital punishment worse: “Racial bias and wrongful conviction are rampant in Florida’s death penalty. Both will almost certainly be exacerbated with the allowance of non-unanimous death sentencing,” she said.
Since 1973, Florida has exonerated 30 people on death row, the most in the country, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit research organization that opposes capital punishment. Texas is second with 16 such exonerations.
Murphy also alleges political motives behind DeSantis’ decision, especially considering up until this past February Florida went almost four years without an execution.
“It is revealing that Governor DeSantis is now suddenly pushing full-force to expand Florida’s death penalty, just as he’s expected to formally announce a presidential bid,” Murphy said. “The death penalty should not be used to score political points. Human beings should not be used as political pawns — including human beings on death row.”
Hmphf.Wosbald wrote: ↑25 Apr 2023, 08:40 +JMJ+
Catholics blast DeSantis move on death penalty as ‘stunning’ attack on human life
Florida's Catholic bishops again urge DeSantis to stay an execution
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OSV News — Catholic bishops in Florida urged Gov. Ron DeSantis to stay the execution of a death-row prisoner as the governor embarks on a bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.
The Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote a May 31 letter to DeSantis asking him to stay the execution of inmate Duane Owen and commute his sentence to life without parole. Owen is scheduled to be executed June 15 for his conviction in the 1984 murders of Karen Slattery and Georgianna Worden in Palm Beach County, Florida.
In the letter to DeSantis, who is also Catholic, on behalf of the bishops of Florida, Michael Sheedy, FCCB executive director, recognized that Owen's "senseless and horrific acts tragically ended the lives of these young women and have caused immeasurable grief and suffering to the victims' families, loved ones and communities."
"However, taking Mr. Owen's life will not restore the lives of the victims," Sheedy wrote. "Intentionally ending his life will do nothing but perpetuate violence in a society steeped in it. Society must be kept safe from Mr. Owen and those like him, but that can be done effectively without resorting to more violence."
Owen's attorneys have argued that he may be insane, leading to a temporary stay in the case in May.
In an executive order dissolving that temporary stay in the case, DeSantis wrote that psychiatrists who evaluated Owen determined he "has the mental capacity to understand the death penalty and the reasons why it is to be imposed upon him," rendering the stay "no longer necessary."
DeSantis' office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from OSV News on the bishops' letter.
[…]
But DeSantis' position on capital punishment has previously placed him at odds with his state's Catholic bishops and the church's magisterium on the issue.
The bishops were among those who asked DeSantis to block the execution of Donald Dillbeck in February, but that execution was carried out the same month.
In his 2020 encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis cited the writings of his predecessor, St. John Paul II, who, he said, "stated clearly and firmly that the death penalty is inadequate from a moral standpoint and no longer necessary from that of penal justice."
"There can be no stepping back from this position," Francis wrote. "Today we state clearly that 'the death penalty is inadmissible' and the church is firmly committed to calling for its abolition worldwide."
Francis also revised the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC, No. 2267) in 2018 to reflect that position.
