Are we really a pro-life people?

Again that question has been gnawing at me since I witnessed the spectacle the other evening on CNN that was the hype before the legal execution of Troy Davis.  Convicted of murdering an off duty police officer in Savannah, Ga. back in 1989, Davis maintained his innocence to the bitter end.  And more disturbing was that 7 of 9 witnesses, over the years, have come forward and very publicly recanted their damning testimony.  At the last hour, the Supreme Court delayed the execution which resulted in a 4 hour delay before the eventual deed was done.

It should be noted that in subsequent hearings, etc. no court ever overturned or ammended the original guilty plea and death penalty punishment.  But once again, in the United States of America we executed a man with a degree of doubt hanging over his guilt.  And once again, the country stands divided, along racial and political lines, as well as faith, as to the merits of a death penalty.

Because of the doubt, this seems a horrible event.  But even without the doubt, the spectacle that has become the "death watch" before each execution leads me to ask the question posed above: are we a pro-life people.  We pray, in our Catholic tradition, for protection for all life, from conception to "natural" death.  How many of us pray that, but in our minds and souls justify that surely that don't mean convicted murderes and rapists and thugs.  Afterall, preborn babies are the innocent of the innocent, death row inmates are the dredges of society. 

If we follow all that God teaches us through the ministry of His Son, Jesus, we know that even the guilty, even the most despised are eligible for His mercy.  And while the Church has not fully denied a state's right to have recourse to the death penalty in the event that is the ONLY way to safeguard it's citizens, Blessed John Paul II clearly taught that this means countries like the good old USA should never execute even it's guilty.

How far back in time do we have to go to recall the number of death row inmates exonnerated by new DNA technology and other evidence gathering techniques.  So much so that the state of Illinois has outlawed the death penalty.  And so we even need to discuss the disparity in executions in red states vs. blue states or the disparity in executions between blacks who killed whites as opposed to blacks who killed blacks or whites who killed blacks.  The numbers can be staggering.

As an ordained minister who visits jail every week; there is redemption, reconciliation and forgiveness inside prison.  And many men, more than you probably realize, who come to Jesus, in the midst of their incarceration, who may have never found their path to Him if an execution would have happened by the state.

There was no one, in my prior life, more pro death penalty than yours truly.  And I never saw it as a conflict to a pro-life mentality.  But I wanted it my way, and did not relaize the depth of God's mercy and love.  And yes, His justice too.  God does not say that the state should not punish it's guilty.  But we certainly can, and must, protect society from the guilty by the means that continue to protect and affirm human dignity, and natural law; even against the most heinous among us.

I continue to pray that as a people we have a conversion of heart and walk away from our death penalty mentality.