Casey Williamson, the six year old girl he beat to death when she resisted his sexual assault, was unavailable for comment, as she has been for 21 years since her murder.
Burn of the Day
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
I’m decidedly pro-death penalty. However, I’m not against clemency in some cases. But the knee jerk death penalty abolitionists have rendered clemency meaningless.
Doesn’t one have to be deemed to have sufficient compos mentis to even be tried for murder one to even be death penalty eligible?
If mental illness were in question he would have had a sanity examination prior to going to trial.
This is a man who confessed in 2002. It has taken 21 years worth of lawyers futzing around and they’re going to have two more rounds of delay. It took three years just to get a jury verdict.
Mark Steyn offered some years ago that he’d faced civil suits in British courts, Canadian courts, and American courts. American legal process in his view is by far the worst of the three.
Our friend Mr. McKenna, prosecutor in Richmond hated by Mark Shea, speculated some time ago that if the death penalty is abolished, these ‘public interest lawyers’ will attack life-without-parole. If then life-without-parole is eliminated, they’ll attack mandatory minima. The complaint is contra punishment per se.
I note that it is difficult to promote the Church’s doctrinal authority when its leading clerics preach against settled scriptural and theological doctrine for something as serious as the death penalty.
Did the so called Catholics advocate to keep people off ventilators in 2020 and 2021? Or, why not Kolbe and swap places with the killer? I agree they have an attraction to criminals, not victims.
“If mental illness were in question he would have had a sanity examination prior to going to trial.” Absolutely. I worked in a prison on the wing with those found not guilty by reason of insanity and those undergoing examination for mental competence. Courts grant examination if there is any doubt at all and the vast majority of those claiming they were incompetent were determined to be competent.
I have mixed feelings about the death penalty. There is a point about keeping it as a deterrent because then we’d be dealing with endless appeals anyway on life sentences, especially since Francis has said that not only is the death penalty is “inadmissible” (whatever that means) but added that a life sentence is a “hidden death penalty” parroting the leftists as he typically does.
You don’t get a death penalty unless you are convicted of a sin that cries out to heaven for vengeance, but then again the other three have already become commonplace and the upcoming sin-nod even seeks to “celebrate” one of them.
This guy is the poster child for what is wrong with the death penalty in practice. Hanging on the town square on Tuesday following a guilty verdict is long gone and any deterrent effect is lost since this stuff goes on for decades. I used to think that the public shouldn’t have to support them for decades, but my guess is that all the appeals cost more than the cost of warehousing murders even for decades. I wonder what Francis would say if we converted all of those post pandemic vacant NY office towers into a maximum security prison with the only release being if Snake Plissken gets you out.
Regardless, they should be required to die alone in prison. Might also give them time alone with God for repentance assuming that they are even open to it.
When the Church gets serious about being pro-life and anti-abortion, I will be glad to review my feelings about being pro-death penalty. Pay attention to the victims stupid. It really is quite simple. Those that murder should try it for themselves. We live in such stupid times. Elections of popes have consequences.
“ hated by Mark Shea,”
A canonizable offense.
Any citizen is empowered by his citizenship to execute the condemned murderer through the murderer’s own power of attorney as he deserved execution starting with the murderer in the state as a citizen.
Germaine Grisez fell into error when he displaced the human dignity of the murderer of homicide in the first degree. Homicide in the first degree is the free will choice of the murderer. All, individuals who deny the murderer his free will choice and the consequences deny what God has made and endowed to all men, free will and the consequences.
The murderer of homicide in the first degree as a member of the state and of the government brings himself to Justice and is executed through his own power of attorney.
I can forgive my murderer. I cannot forgive your murderer without becoming an accessory after the fact.
By defining the murderer of homicide in the first degree by his human dignity, Germaine Grisez defines all men as murderers of homicide in the first degree.
God creates all men souls in original innocence.
Men who maintain their soul’s original innocence as the Blessed Virgin Mary does, cannot be denied by their original innocence.
Germaine Grisez bears false witness against the Blessed Virgin Mary and all men who maintain their soul’s original innocence.
Is it Justice to define the murderer ( of homicide in the first degree) by his human dignity and refuse to define the victim of homicide in the first degree by his human dignity? Is it Justice to define hatred, jealousy and evil as human dignity?
Retribution is given to the innocent victim of homicide in the first degree. Retribution is the acknowledgement of the indwelling of the Supreme Sovereingn Being, the image and likeness of God, in the soul of the homicide victim. Acknowledgement of the indwelling of God in the homicide victim defines the human dignity and sovereignty of the personhood of the victim.
By way of this crime, homicide in the first degree, the retribution due and demanded in Justice and given for the victim, all mankind is acknowledged as children of God. Mankind’s sovereign personhood and human dignity in each and every individual’s human soul is acknowledged by the state as endowed by their Creator. Each and every human soul’s existence is ratifed by society.
If retribution is not demanded in Justice for the innocent victim of homicide in the first degree, Justice will not have been done. The fabric of society will not have been mended. Mankind will spill into the bottomless pit. Is it Justice to allow the condemned to relive and enjoy gtting away with murder in the first degree for years?
Note I: Lex Talionis, the law of an eye for an eye, is promulgated to prevent the killing of a person for striking his neighbor or for other injury. Lex Talionis also prohibits killing innocent persons for crimes done by others as in war; retaliation for bloodguilt.
When forgiven by their victim and by the Sacrament of Penance, the murderer in homicide in the first degree must be executed according to the Bible: “He must be put to death, taken even from my altar (sanctuary) and put to death.” Exodus 21:14. The death penalty is the temporal punishment for homocide in the first degree.
Capital punishemnt is deterrence. Do not let your child be seduced into believing that he can exchange his life in prison for a million dollars by becoming a contract killer.
Hitler and John Wayne Gacy both may have repented on their death.
Dutch Schulze, a killer with ten bullets in him dying was baptized on his death bed.
The killer of homicide in the first degree, murder in stealth as a citizen of the state brings himself to Justice. The executioner of capital punishment exercises the power of attorney of the condemned. The murderer is brought to Justice by his own power of attorney which cannot be denied to him as the condemned murderer of homicide in the first degree is a sovereign person.
Giving a murderer of homicide in the first degree a pass by ostracizing him from the human race and calling it human dignity is wrong because the murder cannot be ostracized of his sovereign personhood endowed at the very first moment of his existence by God. Evil has no place in sovereign personhood. The murderer again has separated himself from the human race and by his own power of attorney brings himself to Justice, eternal and infinite Justice before God.
All self-defense is the power of attorney of the aggressor employed by the victim to maintain his freedom and civil rights.
I apologize. I had no idea the piece was so long.