“Far from being guilty of breaking this commandment [Thou shall not kill], such an execution of justice is precisely an act of obedience to it. For the purpose of the law is to protect and foster human life. This purpose is fulfilled when the legitimate authority of the State is exercised by taking the guilty lives of those who have taken innocent lives.”
From the Catechism of the Council of Trent
We will just rename it “Kahning Punishment “ and it will be ok to the delicate sensibilities of the woke
Menschel is the one with misplaced empathy. He needs to send that letter to his victims families.
Having said this- I don’t read anywhere in Michael Zacks letter where he states that he doesn’t deserve his punishment. Our Lord forgives ALL sin if we sincerely repent. Jesus taught us this. So we can’t argue this fact. So it can only be seen as a good thing if this man has truly repented.
Prayers for his victims families- can’t imagine the life sentence they received as a result of Zacks crimes.
Zacks is quite off the mark for his last sentence. The people cited have nothing to be forgiven. He would have served himself better in this missive to have recognized a necessity to receive consideration from that final Judge than whining about those who were carrying out a most necessary duty.
I have heard from several sources that capital punishment is more likely to produce this transformation than life imprisonment, and I’m not surprised. Confrontation with death, at a certain known date almost certainly produces introspection. Indefinite term of life in prison does not force this in the same way since there are theoretically unlimited tomorrows. Seems capital punishment may be more likely to save the soul which is probably why its popularity has waned, as we ignore all but this life.
Here’s a summary of this fellow Menschel’s activities:
https://www.influencewatch.org/person/david-menschel/
You’ll notice he is a graduate of Princeton and Yale. There was a young man about his age enrolled at the Dalton School in 1988. I’ve found four residences in and one in Westchester associated with his name. One is a small house and the other three are located in apartment buildings and carry Zillow / Trulia / &c sale prices and estimated rents. The sale prices are between $600,000 and $1,500,000. The fifth is, I’m guessing, his parents’ old home on the Upper East Side. You want that condo, be prepared to pay > $6,000,000 for it.
It would be agreeable if the children of the patriciate devoted themselves to producing goods and services for paying customers and not to making the world worse for everyone else.
The death penalty is the temporal punishment for homicide in the first degree. There is no forgivness without doing the temporal punishment for the sin
The murderer is executed through his own power of attorney. So forgiving his executioner is worthless as Donald Link points out.