{"id":97428,"date":"2016-09-30T00:10:45","date_gmt":"2016-09-30T07:10:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=97428"},"modified":"2016-09-28T23:13:09","modified_gmt":"2016-09-29T06:13:09","slug":"a-reader-involved-in-state-government-writes-about-the-death-penalty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2016\/09\/a-reader-involved-in-state-government-writes-about-the-death-penalty.html","title":{"rendered":"A reader involved in state government writes about the death penalty"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Been following your death penalty stuff as limited time allows, and I found your latest post<\/a> interesting. My opening caveat is that, given my current position, some pretty horrendous crimes cross my desk and I\u2019ve been at the table when justice officials were making decisions about whether to seek the death penalty in specific cases. The details of some of these cases would make you weep and vomit, particularly the crimes against kids. What you read in the newspapers about the worst cases only gives you a 10% glance into the heinousness of these crimes. As one prosecutor (who opposes the death penalty) said about a recent case we handled: \u201cIf ever there was a crime the death penalty was designed for, this is it.\u201d But for me, at this point it doesn\u2019t come down to what the Church has put forward infallibly vs. otherwise, but rather a couple basic questions:<\/p>\n

1. Once a person has been apprehended and convicted, are we as a society capable of protecting the citizenry from that person without executing him? The answer is yes (though it means in some cases we must accept long, perhaps even life-long, prison sentences without the possibility of parole, and in certain cases some type of solitary confinement may be necessary).<\/p>\n

2. How can someone who espouses constitutionally limited government and the rule of law in good conscience grant the state the power to execute a man? I don\u2019t see how that\u2019s possible. It never ceases to amaze me that people who complain incessantly of the state\u2019s total ineptness somehow think that it can, without error, decide who lives and who dies. Lest someone is tempted to say \u201cbut don\u2019t we do that in war?\u201d, I would respond that the act of declaring war against an enemy that poses a legitimate and active threat to our territory and citizenry is fundamentally different, at least if we\u2019re attempting to put just war theory into practice. But the last 15+ years of U.S. foreign policy has so warped our sense of what war is that it\u2019s no wonder we can\u2019t seem to make such distinctions anymore.<\/p>\n

As always, I appreciate your efforts to dig into complicated and controversial issues.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thanks! I have nothing to add and agree with you completely.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Been following your death penalty stuff as limited time allows, and I found your latest post interesting. My opening caveat is that, given my current position, some pretty horrendous crimes cross my desk and I\u2019ve been at the table when justice officials were making decisions about whether to seek the death penalty in specific cases. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[278],"class_list":["post-97428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-abolish-the-death-penalty"],"yoast_head":"\nA reader involved in state government writes about the death penalty<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Been following your death penalty stuff as limited time allows, and I found your latest post interesting. My opening caveat is that, given my current\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2016\/09\/a-reader-involved-in-state-government-writes-about-the-death-penalty.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A reader involved in state government writes about the death penalty\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Been following your death penalty stuff as limited time allows, and I found your latest post interesting. My opening caveat is that, given my current\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2016\/09\/a-reader-involved-in-state-government-writes-about-the-death-penalty.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholic and Enjoying It!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-09-30T07:10:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-09-29T06:13:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Shea\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark Shea\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2016\/09\/a-reader-involved-in-state-government-writes-about-the-death-penalty.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2016\/09\/a-reader-involved-in-state-government-writes-about-the-death-penalty.html\",\"name\":\"A reader involved in state government writes about the death penalty\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-09-30T07:10:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-09-29T06:13:09+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5\"},\"description\":\"Been following your death penalty stuff as limited time allows, and I found your latest post interesting. My opening caveat is that, given my current\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2016\/09\/a-reader-involved-in-state-government-writes-about-the-death-penalty.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2016\/09\/a-reader-involved-in-state-government-writes-about-the-death-penalty.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2016\/09\/a-reader-involved-in-state-government-writes-about-the-death-penalty.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A reader involved in state government writes about the death penalty\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/\",\"name\":\"Catholic and Enjoying It!\",\"description\":\"Mark Shea's Blog: So That No Thought of Mine, No Matter How Stupid, Should Ever Go Unpublished Again!\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5\",\"name\":\"Mark Shea\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Mark Shea\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/author\/markshea\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A reader involved in state government writes about the death penalty","description":"Been following your death penalty stuff as limited time allows, and I found your latest post interesting. My opening caveat is that, given my current","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2016\/09\/a-reader-involved-in-state-government-writes-about-the-death-penalty.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A reader involved in state government writes about the death penalty","og_description":"Been following your death penalty stuff as limited time allows, and I found your latest post interesting. My opening caveat is that, given my current","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2016\/09\/a-reader-involved-in-state-government-writes-about-the-death-penalty.html","og_site_name":"Catholic and Enjoying It!","article_published_time":"2016-09-30T07:10:45+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-09-29T06:13:09+00:00","author":"Mark Shea","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mark Shea","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2016\/09\/a-reader-involved-in-state-government-writes-about-the-death-penalty.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2016\/09\/a-reader-involved-in-state-government-writes-about-the-death-penalty.html","name":"A reader involved in state government writes about the death penalty","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-09-30T07:10:45+00:00","dateModified":"2016-09-29T06:13:09+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5"},"description":"Been following your death penalty stuff as limited time allows, and I found your latest post interesting. My opening caveat is that, given my current","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2016\/09\/a-reader-involved-in-state-government-writes-about-the-death-penalty.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2016\/09\/a-reader-involved-in-state-government-writes-about-the-death-penalty.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2016\/09\/a-reader-involved-in-state-government-writes-about-the-death-penalty.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A reader involved in state government writes about the death penalty"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/","name":"Catholic and Enjoying It!","description":"Mark Shea's Blog: So That No Thought of Mine, No Matter How Stupid, Should Ever Go Unpublished Again!","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5","name":"Mark Shea","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Mark Shea"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/author\/markshea"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97428\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}