South Dakota Execution

[catholicinsd]

I find it very hypocritial that my abortion-banning will murder someone.


[quote]South Dakota could execute it's first death row inmate since George Sitts was electrocuted in 1947. Elijah Page has given up his right to appeal his conviction for the brutal murder of a man in March of 2000. Twelve percent of the people executed in the United States have waived part of their appeals. People opposed to the death penalty are writing Governor Mike Rounds and Elijah Page. They are the only two people who can stop or delay the execution.


Sioux Falls, S.D. — Elijah Page was sentenced to die by lethal injection in 2001 after pleading guilty to the brutal murder of 19-year-old Chester Poage. Page, from Athens, Texas, and two of his friends set out to rob Poage. But in order to prevent Poage from reporting the robbery they decided to murder him.

Attorney General Larry Long says it was a violent death in which the beating went on for several hours.

"The terror and the torture and the inhumanity they put that kid through I'm sure is what convinced the judge to give Mr. Page the death penalty. I totally agree with it," says Long.



South Dakota Attorney General Larry Long

Elijah Page and Briley Piper both pleaded guilty to the crime and received the death sentence from the judge. The third man, had a jury trial and received life in prison.

Now 24 years old, Elijah Page is not appealing his sentence and a judge has found Page competent to make the decision. If he's executed, Page will be the 8th person younger than 25 to be executed in the United States since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. Attorney General Larry Long says Page is making a conscious decision to accept his punishment.

"Frankly there's part of me that believes he's finally made a responsible decision. That he has said himself that he deserves the death penalty and he's willing to see it carried out," says Long.

Deb McIntyre, Executive Director of South Dakota's Peace and Justice Center, says Elijah Page was an abused child. His mother traded him to be used sexually for drugs. His father physically abused him.

"People respond out of their own pain, frustration, and negativity," says McIntyre. "What those boys did came out of a violence that was angry at all of us. It came out of a violence that was looking for an outlet of what had been done to them," she says.

McIntyre is organizing a letter writing campaign focusing on Gov. Mike Rounds and Elijah Page. Page can delay his execution saying he wants to appeal his death sentence. Governor Rounds can stop the execution by commuting Page's death sentence to life without parole. Deb McIntyre says if the state goes through with the execution it's nothing more than state assisted suicide.



South Dakota's execution chamber

"You can't have a double standard here. It makes no sense to be able to say if we kill Elijah Page then we're better than he was," says McIntyre.

South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds says he won't intervene. Political observers say he doesn't have to.

Bill Richardson, Chairman of the University of South Dakota Political Science Department, says the governor's stance on this case can't be used against him politically because he isn't being asked by Elijah Page to do anything.

"The governor, unless something changes, is merely the person watching with the greatest power. There's really no return for him intervening of his on volition," says Richardson.

There are still plenty of legal questions about the death penalty in the United States. South Dakota is one of 37 states that use lethal injection as its form of execution. Another South Dakota death row inmate is challenging the constitutionality of lethal injection. It's one of a number of cases around the country that claim lethal injection causes pain making it cruel and unusual punishment.

The U.S. Supreme Court stopped an execution in June because of questions over lethal injection. Since then executions have been stopped in three other states. [/quote]

[Aloysius]

murder is the deliberate killing of innocents.

this is justice. if it is misplaced justice, then it is a sin. but if the person is guilty of the crime, then it is not the sin of murder; merely the sin of not offering mercy where it should be offered.

that's the Catholic viewpoint. the Catholic viewpoint does not consider any time the state executes one guilty of a grave offense a "murder". Those guilty of grave offenses have given up their right to life. In many cases the state is under a moral obligation to offer them mercy, but if they do not offer them mercy and merely execute them then justice has still been satisfied.

[catholicinsd]

[quote name='Aloysius' post='1050737' date='Aug 25 2006, 10:09 PM']

this is justice.
[/quote]

No. South Dakota, isn't being just on this case.

[Aloysius]

Nevertheless, the man receives a just penalty. Even if the State ought to show mercy, the man still deserves death and receives it justly. It cannot be considered "murder" by any stretch of the imagination.

I do not contest the idea that the state should show mercy because it would be a greater good to allow him to live although he doesn't deserve it. But if they do not choose that road, it is merely the lesser good.

[catholicinsd]

[quote name='Aloysius' post='1050770' date='Aug 25 2006, 10:58 PM']
Even if the State ought to show mercy, the man still deserves death and receives it justly.
[/quote]

Not one of God's children deserve's death. Espcially when they have plead guilty to the sin.

[Aloysius]

When one pleads guilty, one accepts all just punishments for that sin that are deserved by that sin. Scripture says that those who spill blood deserve death. It is now time for the murderer to accept the just punishment and thus achieve expiation for the sin and forgiveness from God.

Let me re-phrase your sentence: Every one of God's children deserves death, but because of God's mercy they have a right to life and a chance at eternal life. Those who commit grave sins like murder forfeit their right to life but can still acheive eternal life if they ask for forgiveness.

[cmotherofpirl]

Executing someone who has been legally tried and found guilty of murder and is set for execution is not state assisted suicide or murder. The state has the option to convert a sentence to life in prison if it so chooses. Its choosing not to, and it has that right. The young man has chosen not to appeal his sentence.
May God have mercy on his soul.

[catholicinsd]

[quote name='Aloysius' post='1050778' date='Aug 25 2006, 11:06 PM']
When one pleads guilty, one accepts all just punishments for that sin that are deserved by that sin. Scripture says that those who spill blood deserve death. It is now time for the murderer to accept the just punishment and thus achieve expiation for the sin and forgiveness from God.

Let me re-phrase your sentence: Every one of God's children deserves death, but because of God's mercy they have a right to life and a chance at eternal life. Those who commit grave sins like murder forfeit their right to life but can still acheive eternal life if they ask for forgiveness.
[/quote]

I'd agree with you but killing him isn't a just punishment.

And nobody forfeits the Right to Life, ever. We are convinced with it, and it remains with us always.

[cmotherofpirl]

[quote name='catholicinsd' post='1050782' date='Aug 26 2006, 12:11 AM']
I'd agree with you but killing him isn't a just punishment.

And nobody forfeits the Right to Life, ever. We are convinced with it, and it remains with us always.
[/quote]

But its only your opinon that it isn't a just punishment. Many people disagree with your position. The young man himself disagrees with you.

It has always been taught that if your deliberately take the life of the innocent you forfeit your life in return. No one right is absolute. The state of your soul is more important than the length of your life.

[catholicinsd]

[quote name='cmotherofpirl' post='1050790' date='Aug 25 2006, 11:19 PM']
But its only your opinon that it isn't a just punishment. Many people disagree with your position. The young man himself disagrees with you.


[/quote]

The only reason he does is because the state has broken him. Mr. Page is broken so much the he's lost the sacred desire to live. To me, that is punishment enough.

[Aloysius]

Or maybe, just maybe, he decided to accept a punishment he believes is just. Many people who have killed accept that their own death is a just punishment.

The Bible teaches that murderers have forfeited their right to life. The Catholic Church teaches that murderers have forfeited their right to life. Your statemetns are conrary both the the teachings of the Scriptures (whosover sheddeth a man's blood by man shall his blood be shed"), Christ Himself (for God has given you (Pilate, Rome) power over my life), and Christ's Catholic Church (the Catholic doctrine/principal of forfeiture, Catechism of the Catholic Church). You are talking contrary to all three of these things.

Again, follow the Church's lead and say that the State ought to show mercy. Go so far as to shout and scream in outcry that the State is being unjust by not showing mercy. But it is not murder; and if he does get executed accept that the lesser good was still done. That's what Christ and His Church commands of you.

[zwergel88]

I hate the death penalty.

[catholicinsd]

[quote name='Aloysius' post='1050820' date='Aug 26 2006, 12:03 AM']
Go so far as to shout and scream in outcry that the State is being unjust by not showing mercy. [/quote]

That's what I'm doing.

South Dakota is so screwed up. I'm willing to bet that Mr. Page's mother at least contimplated abortion, (as she was rather poor and had a drug habit) and now look at our state is doing to the fruits of the pro-life effort.

[b]Page's blood will stain the soil of South Dakota, and by the act abortion will reamin legal this state. [/b]

[Anomaly]

I guess God was sinning when He caused Gemorrah to be destroyed with fire and brimstone.

I guess God was sinning when He caused Lot's wife to be made into a pillar of salt.

And of course, God was sinning when He caused the Egyptian army to be drowned in the Red Sea.

Let's not bring up all the First Born.

And what about the inhabitants of Jericho...


What a burden it must be, to have a higher moral standard than God Himself.

Edited August 26, 2006 by Anomaly

[Aloysius]

[quote name='catholicinsd' post='1050824' date='Aug 26 2006, 01:16 AM']
That's what I'm doing.

South Dakota is so screwed up. I'm willing to bet that Mr. Page's mother at least contimplated abortion, (as she was rather poor and had a drug habit) and now look at our state is doing to the fruits of the pro-life effort.

[b]Page's blood will stain the soil of South Dakota, and by the act abortion will reamin legal this state. [/b]
[/quote]
as a Catholic, you are obligated to believe that this is not murder and that Page's life was forfeited by he himself. all that is happening here is that the [i]lesser[/i] good is happening, instead of the [i]greater[/i] good of showing the guy mercy. that's what the Catechism teaches.

so his blood is certainly not staining the state. perhaps it could perpetuate the lack of respect for human life like Evangelium Vitae says, but this is certainly not the same as if he had been aborted.

If he had been aborted an innocent life would have been murdered. If he is executed he will have accepted just punishment and his sin would have been expiated by that acceptance. He gets a chance at a virtuous death forgiven and saved.