www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Underwood death penalty case

The Church opposes the death penalty in general, and presumably opposes the death penalty for Mr. Underwood.

Is it appropriate for the State of Oklahoma to seek the death penalty in this case?

Would Mr. Underwood survive 30 days in the general prison population if a life sentence were imposed?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060418/ap_on_re_us/girl_slain_oklahoma;_ylt=Au26AcRkL0Ut2vGYvHoTOa.s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MjBwMWtkBHNlYwM3MTg-

Of course, he is presumed to be innocent until proven to be guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the charges against him.

A tough question for Catholics, and I expect for many Orthodox Christians as well.

JP

His notes indicate that he needs serious psychiatric help, including strong schizophrenia medication.

My GUESS would be that the man is possessed by a demon - possibly several.

In situations like his, I would be concerned about whether the prison population and the guards would be safe from him. There is a marked difference between a robbery gone bad at a 7-Eleven and premeditated murder of a little girl for the purpose of molesting and cannibalizing her. This man is a clear danger to ANYONE he encounters.

Therefore in the interest of the continued protection of society - within and outside the prison - I would give him the thumbs down.

I have read over and over in the Catechism about the death penalty. The Catechism states that we have the right to protect ourselves and that means that in some cases that some persons have to be executed to protect society.

http://www.catholic.net/rcc/Periodicals/Dossier/9-10-98/article.html

This guy is so sick that there is no way to protect anyone from him. Further, the longer he lives the more likely he will give rise to copy-cat killers and others who will try to emulate him. We have examples of this with Charles Manson, John Wayne Gacy, and Ted Bundy.

The real problem is that these death penalty cases are drug out for decades before the sentence is carried out. Whether or not the person is innocent or not is a big problem. Most of the people I have heard of who have been falselly accused were caught in the middle of comitting another crime like robbing a liquor store or rape; so these people weren't entirely innocent of any crime or wrong doing. But in his case he admitted to raping, killing and planning to eat this innocent little girl.

Let's not forget the victims of these abominable people who do these kinds of things, which is what happened in the case of Charles "Tookie" Williams. All the people in Holly Weird were crying foul because he was set to finally be executed decades after his crimes, but NO ONE there mentioned the horrific brutality in which he murdered his victims!

I pray for Justice for this man. I also pray for Mercy for him, may he be converted as Alessandro Serenelli was converted:

http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintm09.htm

A guy in Germany was arrested for killing and eating another man. During the trial it came out that he placed an ad online with something to the effect of, "looking for someone to eat, call..." Another man put in an ad, "looking for someone to be eaten by, call..." - these two nutjobs got together, and you know what happened.

Anyhow the guy only got an 8yr sentence.
Article 1 [stuff.co.nz]
Article 2 [dw-world.de]