Capital Punishment - Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia Thus, capital punishment is the penalty for a crime so severe that it deserves do not support the view that capital punishment acts as a deterrent. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_penalty
Extractions: Capital punishment , also referred to as the death penalty , is the judicially ordered execution of a prisoner as a punishment for a serious crime , often called a capital offense or a capital crime . Some jurisdictions that practice capital punishment restrict its use to a small number of criminal offences, principally treason and murder . Prisoners who have been sentenced to death are usually kept segregated from other prisoners in a special part of the prison pending their execution. In some places this segregated area is known as " death row Historicallyâand still today under certain systems of lawâthe death penalty was applied to a wider range of offenses, including robbery or theft . It has also been frequently used by the military for crimes including looting insubordination , and mutiny The term "capital" derives from the Latin caput , meaning "head". Thus, capital punishment is the penalty for a crime so severe that it deserves
Catholicism & Capital Punishment Catholicism capital punishment AVERY CARDINAL DULLES such as clergy andreligious, in view of their specific vocation, should abstain from pronouncing http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/religion/re0461.html
Extractions: Some Catholics, going beyond the bishops and the Pope, maintain that the death penalty, like abortion and euthanasia, is a violation of the right to life and an unauthorized usurpation by human beings of God's sole lordship over life and death. Did not the Declaration of Independence, they ask, describe the right to life as "unalienable"? While sociological and legal questions inevitably impinge upon any such reflection, I am here addressing the subject as a theologian. At this level the question has to be answered primarily in terms of revelation, as it comes to us through Scripture and tradition, interpreted with the guidance of the ecclesiastical magisterium. In the Old Testament the Mosaic Law specifies no less than thirty-six capital offenses calling for execution by stoning, burning, decapitation, or strangulation. Included in the list are idolatry, magic, blasphemy, violation of the sabbath, murder, adultery, bestiality, pederasty, and incest. The death penalty was considered especially fitting as a punishment for murder since in his covenant with Noah God had laid down the principle, "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in His own image" (Genesis 9:6). In many cases God is portrayed as deservedly punishing culprits with death, as happened to Korah, Dathan, and Abiram (Numbers 16). In other cases individuals such as Daniel and Mordecai are God's agents in bringing a just death upon guilty persons.
The Truth Shall Set You Free A skeptical view of Christianity and other organized religions, with suggested never reaching the level of his opposition to capital punishment, http://members.aol.com/chasklu/religion/
Extractions: In recent years, there has been a surge of interest in religions, including a number of books which point out the errors in the literal interpretation of the Bible, as professed by the so-called Fundamentalist Christian denominations. Less attention has been devoted to examining the more liberal churches. These include the Catholic Church, liberal in the sense of not considering the Bible to be literally true. It is also the major Christian denomination and wields considerable influence in America and the world today. It would behoove us to take a rational look at the bases and influences of the more liberal churches, to see what value they have in informing our policies, both personal and public, in the light of Catholic/Protestant cooperation in the political arena, such as the Christian Coalition, and Operation Rescue, and papal pronouncements on birth control, war, capital punishment, and the third world. An example to consider is the fairly recent tenure of Governor Mario Cuomo of New York. He was pro-choice regarding abortion, a fact which led the local cardinal to suggest he might be subject to excommunication. He claimed to be personally opposed to abortion, in deference to his Catholic roots and constituents, but his opposition to abortion always seemed to me hypocritical, never reaching the level of his opposition to capital punishment, which he vetoed each year of his terms. We are not here to examine the relative merits of allowing women the choice of abortion or allowing the voters the choice of capital punishment, but I ask why the governor was afraid of excommunication so much as to denounce the threat of its use. What hold does the church (the Catholic Church, and religion in general) have over people? Was the governor concerned over his "immortal soul" or over his Catholic constituent/voters?
Raising Kaine » Blog Page capital punishment Jerry Kilgore Religion. Lowell @ 725 pm DespiteVirginias long history of acceptance for capital punishment, Jerry Kilgore http://www.raisingkaine.com/blog/?cat=2
Web-ñàéò ÂÑ ÐÊ - Legal Articles The use of capital punishment has been and still is one of the most the legalpoint of view and from the point of view of morals, ethics, religion, etc. http://www.supcourt.kz/site/supcourten.nsf/0/0E9441845327CE0AC6256FC0003530E6?Op
American Prospect Online - ViewPrint Zimring s The Contradictions of American capital punishment hones in on the The Enlightenment introduced a competing view of the individual as a blank http://www.prospect.org/web/view-print.ww?id=6844
HoustonChronicle.com - Capital Punishment Deeply Rooted In The South The South has always been fertile ground for capital punishment. assume thatthis way of viewing religion would carry over into one s view of the world. http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/penalty/814478
Extractions: Thirty-eight states have capital punishment laws on their books. As a practical matter, though, the death penalty is the province of the South. Three-quarters of the 693 executions that have been carried out since 1977 belong to the 12 Southern states, even though 26 other states, including Pennsylvania and California, have the death penalty on their books. If you add the states that border the South, the figure rises to about 90 percent. ADVERTISEMENT Even the federal system, where U.S. attorneys have to request permission from the attorney general to seek the death penalty, has not minimized this disparity. Of the 26 death sentences handed out by federal juries from 1988 to 2000, 23 were cases from Southern or border states.
Focus On The Death Penalty Offers history, statistics, death rows by state, issues under debate, and theinternational context. http://www.uaa.alaska.edu/just/death/
Extractions: 24 March 2005: T he Death Penalty Statistics A number of attempts at introducing capital punishment to the Alaska criminal justice system have occurred in recent years. The purpose of this site is to provide Alaska citizens and other members of the public with a source of information on the death penalty so that they can make informed decisions on this important issue. (See for historical information and updates on the progress of the death penalty debate in Alaska.) We hope that others will also find the site useful. This site has been established by the Justice Center at University of Alaska Anchorage as an educational resource. It is not intended to take sides in the debate on the death penalty. Rather, its purpose is to give as full a picture as possible, using existing Internet resources, of the complex issues surrounding capital punishment and its application.