Goetz says capital punishment is a matter of revenge more than it is a deterrent. Concerns about flaws and racial biases in the criminal justice system also make people question the death penalty, Goetz says. We are never quite totally sure if someone has really done something. I don't think it prevents crime, it doesn't help the families of victims, it doesn't bring anybody back, it doesn't assuage hurt. And in many cases, people are executed who aren't guilty.
Life is sacred.
We don't have the right to take another's life. The Catholic Church does not condemn the practice of capital punishment, says the Rev. John S. Putka, S.M., political science instructor at the University of Dayton. But the circumstances surrounding each case have to be carefully evaluated for every person convicted and sentenced to die. Capital punishment can be morally acceptable if the death sentence has been imposed for a sufficiently serious crime and the person has had a fair trial. Church officials have lobbied for death penalties to be set aside in the past, Putka says, but the church has never condemned capital punishment as evil in itself.