In a case that has drawn the attention of Pope Benedict XVI, the US Supreme Court held that a lower court should examine the new evidence being presented that claims to exonerate a man convicted of killing a police officer, as reported by USA Today.
Though the highest court has not intervened in a capital punishment case in this manner for nearly fifty years, it is perhaps good to do so now and—whatever the outcome—bring more resolution to the, as yet unconfirmed, argument that many innocent people have been executed.
An excerpt.
“WASHINGTON — In an exceptional move Monday, the Supreme Court ordered a U.S. court in Georgia to hear new testimony in the case of Troy Davis, who was sentenced to die for killing a police officer and whose appeal has drawn international attention.
“The justices said a lower-court judge should determine whether fresh evidence "clearly establishes" Davis' innocence. Since a jury convicted him 18 years ago, seven of the prosecution's key witnesses have recanted their testimony about what happened in a Savannah, Ga., parking lot the night officer Mark Allen MacPhail was shot.
“The high court rarely intervenes in death penalty appeals at late stages and almost never when a condemned inmate is filing the kind of special petition that Davis did. Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas said in their dissent that it had been nearly 50 years since the court accepted such a petition.
“Davis' case comes amid growing questions about the possibility of innocent convicts on death row and courts' treatment of evidence that emerges after a conviction.
“His claim of innocence had won earlier support from former president Jimmy Carter and Pope Benedict XVI, and his latest bid drew "friend of the court" briefs from the NAACP and former U.S. House member Bob Barr, a Republican from Georgia.”
Friday, August 21, 2009
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Capital Punishment & Life Without Parole
Many capital punishment abolitionists argue that life without parole is adequate to protect the innocent from the aggressor whose crimes deserve the ultimate sanction; yet capital punishment supporters argue that life without parole can always be changed while capital punishment is a final resolution.
This article from the Des Moines Register reports on local action buttressing the argument offered by supporters of capital punishment.
An excerpt.
“In March 1984, just three days after his 18th birthday, Stanley Hart III conspired with two accomplices to murder his aunt at her rural Keokuk home, a crime that sent him to prison for life.
“Hart promised a younger teen a car, $2,500 and all the beer he could drink to kill Marilyn Hart, 53, in hopes of gaining access to his family's wealth.
“Twenty-five years later, Hart, grandson of a once-prominent state senator, remains behind bars at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison.
“Hart, 43, has behaved well there, earning a bachelor's degree from the University of Iowa and graduate degrees in business and theology. Dozens of people have written to Iowa officials supporting a commutation of his sentence, which would make him eligible for parole.
“But like all Iowa prisoners serving life sentences, Hart has a slim chance of winning freedom. Iowa is one of the most difficult states in the nation for an inmate serving a life sentence to gain release, according to a study issued last month by the Sentencing Project, a Washington advocacy group.
“Iowa's three most recent governors have commuted life sentences only nine times in 26 years. At the same time, the population of lifers in Iowa's prison system has risen dramatically, from 162 inmates in 1983 to 617 today, an increase of 281 percent.
“Critics want to reduce that number, citing the high cost in dollars - nearly $19 million a year to house current lifers - and in lost human potential. But that notion threatens to disturb Iowa's uneasy truce over capital punishment: Iowa lawmakers have repeatedly rejected the death penalty, but only because "life means life" for the most serious crimes, noted Corwin Ritchie, executive director of the Iowa County Attorneys Association.
“The issue highlights the conflict between two deeply held societal views about crime and punishment: that everyone deserves a second chance, and that some crimes against society are so heinous that criminals must forever forfeit their freedom.”
This article from the Des Moines Register reports on local action buttressing the argument offered by supporters of capital punishment.
An excerpt.
“In March 1984, just three days after his 18th birthday, Stanley Hart III conspired with two accomplices to murder his aunt at her rural Keokuk home, a crime that sent him to prison for life.
“Hart promised a younger teen a car, $2,500 and all the beer he could drink to kill Marilyn Hart, 53, in hopes of gaining access to his family's wealth.
“Twenty-five years later, Hart, grandson of a once-prominent state senator, remains behind bars at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison.
“Hart, 43, has behaved well there, earning a bachelor's degree from the University of Iowa and graduate degrees in business and theology. Dozens of people have written to Iowa officials supporting a commutation of his sentence, which would make him eligible for parole.
“But like all Iowa prisoners serving life sentences, Hart has a slim chance of winning freedom. Iowa is one of the most difficult states in the nation for an inmate serving a life sentence to gain release, according to a study issued last month by the Sentencing Project, a Washington advocacy group.
“Iowa's three most recent governors have commuted life sentences only nine times in 26 years. At the same time, the population of lifers in Iowa's prison system has risen dramatically, from 162 inmates in 1983 to 617 today, an increase of 281 percent.
“Critics want to reduce that number, citing the high cost in dollars - nearly $19 million a year to house current lifers - and in lost human potential. But that notion threatens to disturb Iowa's uneasy truce over capital punishment: Iowa lawmakers have repeatedly rejected the death penalty, but only because "life means life" for the most serious crimes, noted Corwin Ritchie, executive director of the Iowa County Attorneys Association.
“The issue highlights the conflict between two deeply held societal views about crime and punishment: that everyone deserves a second chance, and that some crimes against society are so heinous that criminals must forever forfeit their freedom.”
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Catholic Movies
I love movies, and agree with this article from The Catholic Thing, that they are congruent with and reflect our culture.
So many of my favorites embody the great battle between good and evil, whether crime dramas, westerns, sci fi, or fantasy; and I was pleased to discover that John Wayne (one of the all-time greats) became a Catholic before he died.
This article looks at American Catholic movies.
An excerpt.
“I suppose I’ve seen 3000 movies.
“I’ve written about a couple here (Doubt and Death Takes a Holiday), and I’m not alone in believing that the evolution of this quintessentially American art form reflects changes in the larger culture. Consider especially the evolving status of Catholics on the big screen.
“Before the talkies, there were few priests or nuns or genuflecting laymen on film, although there were Catholics. Mack Sennett’s Keystone Kops were based upon the myth – or was it the reality? – of the ubiquitous Irish-Catholic cop. But American Catholic moviemaking began in earnest when John Ford (born Sean Aloysius O'Fearna or John Martin Feeney, depending on when you asked him) first started directing silent movies in the Twenties.
“His part-silent, part-sound feature Mother Machree (1928) was notable for its sympathetic portrayal of a Catholic family – and for the beginning of Ford’s twenty-four-film collaboration with a then twenty-one-year-old actor named John Wayne. (Wayne converted to Catholicism shortly before his death in 1979.) The Informer (1935) with Victor McLaglen – Catholic in that it deals with the Irish Republican Army – cemented Ford’s reputation as Hollywood’s top director and won him his first Oscar. He would go on to adapt Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory as The Fugitive (1946) with Gregory Peck, The Quiet Man (1954) with Wayne, and The Last Hurrah (1958) with Spencer Tracy. Ford had directed 140 films by the time he died in 1973.”
So many of my favorites embody the great battle between good and evil, whether crime dramas, westerns, sci fi, or fantasy; and I was pleased to discover that John Wayne (one of the all-time greats) became a Catholic before he died.
This article looks at American Catholic movies.
An excerpt.
“I suppose I’ve seen 3000 movies.
“I’ve written about a couple here (Doubt and Death Takes a Holiday), and I’m not alone in believing that the evolution of this quintessentially American art form reflects changes in the larger culture. Consider especially the evolving status of Catholics on the big screen.
“Before the talkies, there were few priests or nuns or genuflecting laymen on film, although there were Catholics. Mack Sennett’s Keystone Kops were based upon the myth – or was it the reality? – of the ubiquitous Irish-Catholic cop. But American Catholic moviemaking began in earnest when John Ford (born Sean Aloysius O'Fearna or John Martin Feeney, depending on when you asked him) first started directing silent movies in the Twenties.
“His part-silent, part-sound feature Mother Machree (1928) was notable for its sympathetic portrayal of a Catholic family – and for the beginning of Ford’s twenty-four-film collaboration with a then twenty-one-year-old actor named John Wayne. (Wayne converted to Catholicism shortly before his death in 1979.) The Informer (1935) with Victor McLaglen – Catholic in that it deals with the Irish Republican Army – cemented Ford’s reputation as Hollywood’s top director and won him his first Oscar. He would go on to adapt Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory as The Fugitive (1946) with Gregory Peck, The Quiet Man (1954) with Wayne, and The Last Hurrah (1958) with Spencer Tracy. Ford had directed 140 films by the time he died in 1973.”
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Capital Punishment, Judges Dissent
With a hat tip to the Crime and Consequences blog, this article from the New York Times expands on judges dissenting from their colleagues ruling allowing the sentence of capital punishment to proceed.
Lampstand supports capital punishment as it is a sanction that has been supported by the Catholic Church since the very beginning.
We recently published a book on Capital Punishment and the announcement is posted here.
An excerpt from the New York Times article.
“It took just 80 words for a federal appeals court to deny Kevin Cooper’s most recent plea to avoid execution. But attached to that order was a forceful 101-page dissent by a judge, all but pleading to spare Mr. Cooper’s life.
“The State of California may be about to execute an innocent man,” it began.
“The judge who wrote the dissent, William A. Fletcher of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, argued that the police and prosecutors had withheld and tampered with evidence in the case for decades; Judge Fletcher even accused the district court of having sabotaged the case.
“Compared with the dry, mannerly prose found in many opinions, Judge Fletcher’s passion in Cooper v. Brown is startling. But these kinds of fervent, lonely dissents, urging that a prisoner’s life be spared, have noticeably increased in the last decade, compared with previous years, according to a review of death penalty opinions by The New York Times, as confirmed by experts in the field.
“In dozens of capital cases in recent years, appeals court judges, some of whom have ruled in favor of the death penalty many times, have complained that Congress and the Supreme Court have raised daunting barriers for death row prisoners to appeal their convictions, and in many cases the judges have taken on their colleagues.
“There is an increasing frustration among federal judges throughout the system,” said Eric M. Freedman, a critic of the death penalty who teaches on the subject at Hofstra Law School.”
Lampstand supports capital punishment as it is a sanction that has been supported by the Catholic Church since the very beginning.
We recently published a book on Capital Punishment and the announcement is posted here.
An excerpt from the New York Times article.
“It took just 80 words for a federal appeals court to deny Kevin Cooper’s most recent plea to avoid execution. But attached to that order was a forceful 101-page dissent by a judge, all but pleading to spare Mr. Cooper’s life.
“The State of California may be about to execute an innocent man,” it began.
“The judge who wrote the dissent, William A. Fletcher of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, argued that the police and prosecutors had withheld and tampered with evidence in the case for decades; Judge Fletcher even accused the district court of having sabotaged the case.
“Compared with the dry, mannerly prose found in many opinions, Judge Fletcher’s passion in Cooper v. Brown is startling. But these kinds of fervent, lonely dissents, urging that a prisoner’s life be spared, have noticeably increased in the last decade, compared with previous years, according to a review of death penalty opinions by The New York Times, as confirmed by experts in the field.
“In dozens of capital cases in recent years, appeals court judges, some of whom have ruled in favor of the death penalty many times, have complained that Congress and the Supreme Court have raised daunting barriers for death row prisoners to appeal their convictions, and in many cases the judges have taken on their colleagues.
“There is an increasing frustration among federal judges throughout the system,” said Eric M. Freedman, a critic of the death penalty who teaches on the subject at Hofstra Law School.”
Monday, August 17, 2009
U.S. Bishops on Universal Health Care
A press release from Catholic News Service notes the launch of a new website from the bishops on the current public debate around universal healthcare.
An excerpt from the press release.
"Washington D.C., Aug 15, 2009 / 05:25 pm (CNA).- As the American health care debate continues, the U.S. Catholic bishops have launched a webpage to promote support for a “truly universal” health policy that respects human dignity.
"The page on the website of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) includes letters for bishops to Congress, videos, facts and statistics, frequently asked questions, and links for contacting members of Congress.
"According to a USCCB press release, letters to Congress include USCCB pro-life chairman Cardinal Justice Rigali’s August 11 letter which criticized abortion provisions in the House version of health care legislation. The site also reproduces the July 17 letter from Bishop William Murphy, which outlines the bishops’ concerns and priorities for health care reform from a social justice perspective.
"The new webpage also includes videos of USCCB staff explaining the bishops’ position on health care. Kathy Saile, the USCCB’s director of Domestic Social Development, outlines the prelates’ general position and concerns. Richard Doerflinger, associate director of Pro-Life Activities, describes how abortion relates to the debate over health care reform."
An excerpt from the press release.
"Washington D.C., Aug 15, 2009 / 05:25 pm (CNA).- As the American health care debate continues, the U.S. Catholic bishops have launched a webpage to promote support for a “truly universal” health policy that respects human dignity.
"The page on the website of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) includes letters for bishops to Congress, videos, facts and statistics, frequently asked questions, and links for contacting members of Congress.
"According to a USCCB press release, letters to Congress include USCCB pro-life chairman Cardinal Justice Rigali’s August 11 letter which criticized abortion provisions in the House version of health care legislation. The site also reproduces the July 17 letter from Bishop William Murphy, which outlines the bishops’ concerns and priorities for health care reform from a social justice perspective.
"The new webpage also includes videos of USCCB staff explaining the bishops’ position on health care. Kathy Saile, the USCCB’s director of Domestic Social Development, outlines the prelates’ general position and concerns. Richard Doerflinger, associate director of Pro-Life Activities, describes how abortion relates to the debate over health care reform."
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Abortion & Constancy of Teaching
The respect for human life and the responsibility to protect the innocent, is firmly centered within the Catholic faith, and upon it rests the mandate against abortion and euthanasia, and the support for just war and capital punishment.
The Church was largely alone in the mandate against abortion in the ancient world, as this post by Chiesa, responding to the publication of a book about abortion within the current nation of China.
There are many within the Church and without who have fought against these ancient teachings of Catholicism, and though the teachings often appear on shaky grounds, they have held, and the constancy of each—as reflected within two central documents of the magisterium, the Catechism from the Council of Trent and the Catechism of the Catholic Church from the Council of Vatican II—is crucial for the Church.
An excerpt from the article from Chiesa.
“One of the ideas that recur most in the writings of the first Christians is in fact their desire to frequently repeat one concept: we Christians are different from the pagans, in part because we do not kill our children, neither within our women's wombs or outside of them.
“In chapter XXX, paragraph 2 of his "Octavius," the second-century apologist Minucius Felix, comparing the teaching of Christ with that of the pagans, writes: "you expose your newborn children to wild beasts and to birds; or strangling them you crush with a miserable kind of death. There are some women who, by drinking medical preparations, smother in their very bowels the seed destined to become a human creature, and thus commit a parricide before they bring forth. And you learn these things from your gods, for Saturn did not simply expose his children, but even devoured them."
“For his part, the great Tertullian, in his "Apologeticum," chapter IX, states: "For us Christians murder is expressly forbidden, and therefore it is not even permitted for us to destroy the fetus in its mother's womb. Preventing birth is murder in advance. It doesn't matter at all whether one destroys a life already born or crushes it at birth: what is about to be born is already a human being. Every fruit is already contained in its seed."
“Another very important document from second-century Christianity, written in Asia Minor, the Letter to Diognetus, reiterates the same ideals in this rather concise manner: "Christians marry like everyone else and produce children, but they do not throw away their newborns."
“On this same theme of infanticide, the historian A. Baudrillart has written: "There may be no matter on which ancient pagan society and modern Christian society are in more stark opposition than in their respective ways of thinking about children."
The Church was largely alone in the mandate against abortion in the ancient world, as this post by Chiesa, responding to the publication of a book about abortion within the current nation of China.
There are many within the Church and without who have fought against these ancient teachings of Catholicism, and though the teachings often appear on shaky grounds, they have held, and the constancy of each—as reflected within two central documents of the magisterium, the Catechism from the Council of Trent and the Catechism of the Catholic Church from the Council of Vatican II—is crucial for the Church.
An excerpt from the article from Chiesa.
“One of the ideas that recur most in the writings of the first Christians is in fact their desire to frequently repeat one concept: we Christians are different from the pagans, in part because we do not kill our children, neither within our women's wombs or outside of them.
“In chapter XXX, paragraph 2 of his "Octavius," the second-century apologist Minucius Felix, comparing the teaching of Christ with that of the pagans, writes: "you expose your newborn children to wild beasts and to birds; or strangling them you crush with a miserable kind of death. There are some women who, by drinking medical preparations, smother in their very bowels the seed destined to become a human creature, and thus commit a parricide before they bring forth. And you learn these things from your gods, for Saturn did not simply expose his children, but even devoured them."
“For his part, the great Tertullian, in his "Apologeticum," chapter IX, states: "For us Christians murder is expressly forbidden, and therefore it is not even permitted for us to destroy the fetus in its mother's womb. Preventing birth is murder in advance. It doesn't matter at all whether one destroys a life already born or crushes it at birth: what is about to be born is already a human being. Every fruit is already contained in its seed."
“Another very important document from second-century Christianity, written in Asia Minor, the Letter to Diognetus, reiterates the same ideals in this rather concise manner: "Christians marry like everyone else and produce children, but they do not throw away their newborns."
“On this same theme of infanticide, the historian A. Baudrillart has written: "There may be no matter on which ancient pagan society and modern Christian society are in more stark opposition than in their respective ways of thinking about children."
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Holy Day of Obligation
Today is a Holy Day of Obligation, the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and has been traditionally, though the U.S. Bishop’s Conference says that if the Assumption falls on a Saturday or Monday, as it does for 2009, then, as noted on their website: “the precept to attend Mass is abrogated.”
Consequently, though our home parish is a Jesuit parish, we like to attend the local parish of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter for High Mass in the Extraordinary Rite on Holy Days and will so later this morning.
For converts like us, the experience of a High Mass on Holy Days is one not to be missed, as the solemnity, grandeur, ritual, and mystery, punctuated by Gregorian Chant, is connected with the ancient rhythms of the Catholic Church, and it will thrill your heart and soul.
The Fraternity is, as noted on their website:
“A Society of Apostolic Life of Pontifical Right founded with the approval of His Holiness Pope John Paul II in 1988, for the formation and sanctification of priests in the framework of the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite and their pastoral deployment in the service of the Church.”
Consequently, though our home parish is a Jesuit parish, we like to attend the local parish of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter for High Mass in the Extraordinary Rite on Holy Days and will so later this morning.
For converts like us, the experience of a High Mass on Holy Days is one not to be missed, as the solemnity, grandeur, ritual, and mystery, punctuated by Gregorian Chant, is connected with the ancient rhythms of the Catholic Church, and it will thrill your heart and soul.
The Fraternity is, as noted on their website:
“A Society of Apostolic Life of Pontifical Right founded with the approval of His Holiness Pope John Paul II in 1988, for the formation and sanctification of priests in the framework of the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite and their pastoral deployment in the service of the Church.”
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