The Visor

Ohio execution pins legal system against Church teaching

March 26, 2010

Lawrence Reynolds Jr. killed his Cuyahoga Falls neighbor in 1994 and was charged with aggravated murder, aggravated robbery, kidnapping, aggravated burglary and attempted rape of 67-year-old Loretta Foster. He was found guilty on all four counts and received the death penalty for the first count. His execution, orginally scheduled for Oct. 8, 2009, was stayed by Governor Ted Strickland who granted a reprieve due to a review of the lethal injection protocol. At the clemency hearing, the board voted six to zero not to repeal the death penalty.

On the morning of his new March 10 execution date, Reynolds was hospitalized for overdosing on pills in an attempted suicide. Rumor had it that Reynolds hoarded his daily pills but confirmation could not be made.

Reynolds’s case raises concerns that the legal system needs improvement. When the case was first taken to court, Reynolds was found guilty and never denied his actions. 15 years is too long for a case to be open.

Nursing Reynolds back to health was a blatant waste of tax dollars. The legal system spent money while he was in the hospital and then they paid more money to kill him. They should have picked a side and if they felt he shouldn’t live, they should have let him die.

Almost a week after Reynolds was restored to health, he was executed on March 16 at 10:27 A.M. The Foster family truly believes justice has been served, which is disheartening.

As a Catholic, I do not support the death penalty; however, I also do not support the legal system nursing a man back to health to kill him at a later date. I strongly believe God is the one who should decide when someone dies, not the legal system.

When we decide that a punishment should be as bad as the action we are only supporting violence. The only way to end violence is with love. Retributive justice has a slogan, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. The Catholic Church does not agree and neither do I. With the death penalty, we are supporting retributive justice.

It has been proven that the death penalty does not lower crimes as it does not deter criminal action. States that have the death penalty have a higher crime rate than those that don’t. Clearly the death penalty as a punishment isn’t reducing crime.

People commit horrible crimes and the punishment should be life in prison without parole. The Catholic Church believes that capital punishment is acceptable “if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor’ (Catechism, 2267). The catechism also states that the acceptable situations “are very rare, if not practically non-existent” (2267).

The death penalty will most likely not become illegal anytime soon, but as Catholics, we must give every person the most important right, the right to life.

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