In a recent post, Ms. Hunt declared unequivocally that she’s “opposed to capital punishment.”  According to Ms. Hunt, the fifth commandment and “the parable of the wheat and seeds” evidence the intrinsically sinful nature of capital punishment.  Ms. Hunt’s “deeper” reason for disliking capital punishment relies on the assumption that capital punishment is sinful per se: “the consequences [of sin and, therefore, capital punishment] are disastrous.” 

Whether or not we agree with Ms. Hunt, her post begs the question, is capital punishment sinful?

The fifth commandment seems to indicate as much, apparently forbidding, in no uncertain terms, the termination of human life.  But, curiously, after revealing this commandment to Moses on Mount Sinai God charges his servant to execute those who disobey certain of His laws:

“He that striketh a man with a will to kill him, shall be put to death…If a man kill his neighbor on a set purpose, and be lying in wait for him: thou shalt take him away from my altar that he may die.  He that striketh his father or mother, shall be put to death.  He that shall steal a man, and sell him, being convicted of the guilt, shall be put to death.  He that curseth his father or mother, shall be put to death.”[1]

Capital punishment cannot be sinful if God Himself endorses it, and thus we find in the Baltimore Catechism that while the fifth commandment forbids “all willful murder, fighting, anger, hatred, revenge, and bad example,”[2] capital punishment is not forbidden and is not sinful: “human life may be lawfully taken…by the lawful execution of a criminal, fairly tried and found guilty of a crime punishable by death, when the preservation of law and order and the good of the community require such execution.”[3] 

Perhaps, in the face of such evidence, Ms. Hunt would admit that capital punishment is no sin.  She might, however, explain that even if capital punishment is not, in itself sinful, the catechism only allows for its exercise “when the preservation of law and order and the good of the community require such execution.”  Ms. Hunt might argue that in His parable of the wheat and the weeds, Christ teaches that the good of the community and the preservation of law and order do not require execution.

St. Thomas Aquinas, in his Summa Theologica, answers such an objection:

“[i]t would seem unlawful to kill men who have sinned.  For Our Lord in the parable (Matth. Xiii) forbade the uprooting of the cockle which denotes wicked men according to a gloss.  Now whatever is forbidden by God is a sin.  Therefore it is a sin to kill a sinner… [But] Our Lord commanded them to forbear from uprooting the cockle in order to spare the wheat, i.e., the good.  This occurs when the wicked cannot be slain without the good being killed with them, either because the wicked lie hidden among the good, or because they have many followers, so that they cannot be killed without danger to the good, as Augustine says (Contra Parmen, iii. 2).  Wherefore Our Lord teaches that we should rather allow the wicked to live, and that vengeance is to be delayed until the last judgement, rather than that the good be put to death together with the wicked.  When, however, the good incur no danger, but rather are protected and saved by the slaying of the wicked, then the latter may be lawfully put to death”[4] (emphasis added).

“Ah,” Ms. Hunt may reply, “but in punishing the wicked, the good are harmed.  For society is injured by the execution of any one of its members, even those who would harm it. Allowing a mass murderer to live gives him–and us—a chance for salvation. Killing him deprives him—and us—of that chance.”

St. Thomas responds, “According to the order of His wisdom, God sometimes slays sinners forthwith in order to deliver the good, whereas sometimes He allows them time to repent, according as He knows what is expedient for His elect.  This also does human justice imitate according to its powers; for it puts to death those who are dangerous to others, while it allows time for repentance to those who sin without grievously harming.”[5]  Society is not injured but improved by the lawful execution of harmful members.  As per St. Thomas, “it may be good to kill a man who has sinned, even as it is to kill a beast.  For a bad man is worse than a beast, and is more harmful.”[6] 

Capital punishment is no sin.  Penal systems are not a usurpation of God’s authority.  Such statements defy the constant teaching of the Church and Christ’s own words, “[y]ou would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above.”[7]

The last word on this matter should belong to Fr. Augustine Fagothey, S. J., who provided an excellent explanation of the Church’s teaching on penal systems in his book, Right and Reason:

“The state exists to maintain justice, and one of its chief purposes is the prevention and punishment of crime.  In receiving its authority from God through the natural law, the state also receives from Him the right to use the necessary means for attaining its end.  The death penalty is used as such a means.  It fulfills the retributive function of punishment by re-establishing as far as possible the balance of outraged justice…By its very nature capital punishment cannot be corrective.  But correction, desirable though it be in a punishment, is not absolutely necessary.”[8]

[1]Exodus 21: 12-17

[2] Baltimore Catechism Three, Question and Answer 1277

[3] Ibid. Question and Answer 1276.

[4] Summa Theologica Pt. II-II, Q. 64, A. 2

[5] Ibid. Pt. II-II, Q. 64, A. 2

[6] Ibid.  Pt. II-II, Q. 64, A. 2

[7] John 19:11

[8] Augustine Fagothey, S. J., Right and Reason (Rockford; TAN Books and Publishers, Inc., 1959), 422-423.