THE EDITOR, Sir:

Peter Espeut's column on the death penalty missed the very point of the death penalty ('Reason, not outrage', November 14). People are supposed to be outraged and angry over brutal murders. If we are not, then we have lost all of our humanity.

Deliberate votes of conscience, involving thorough thought and review, may find that the death penalty is a just and appropriate sanction for some murders, considering the context of the crimes themselves, as well as our outrage over them. They cannot and should not be separate.

In pushing his view of the error of capital punishment, Catholic deacon Espeut states that much evangelisation must be done for those Christians who believe that some murderers deserve the death penalty. Hardly.

Change of heart?

For nearly 2,000 years, the Catholic Church has found traditional, biblical and theological support for the death penalty. Only quite recently has the Catholic Church turned against the death penalty, with the new opposition based upon 'defence of society' and the 'current state of the criminal justice system'.

These are secular reasons with a foundation which varies widely throughout the world, and it avoids the reality that the death penalty offers more defence of society than do lesser sanctions. More important, this new position avoids the concepts of justice, biblical instruction and expiation.

It is hard to imagine the Church choosing to spare murderers' lives at the cost of more innocents harmed. But that is what has occurred.

Mr Espeut is simply wrong! There is no clash between the New Law and the Old Law with regard to capital punishment. Along with many other saints, popes and theologians, saints Thomas Aquinas and Augustine offer some New Testament support for the death penalty. Do they need some more evangelisation, Deacon Espeut?

Lack of reason

Could Deacon Espeut have misunderstood John 8 regarding the woman caught in adultery? It is not a passage against capital punishment, but an attempt to entrap Jesus, with Jesus deftly turning the tables on the Pharisees.

Deacon Espeut ends with his conclusion that it takes the devil to find death penalty support in scripture.

Sadly, the deacon has, thereby, become the very example of the lack of reason and thoughtlessness that he sought to condemn.

I am, etc.,

DUDLEY SHARP

sharpjfa@aol.com

713-622-5491,

Houston, Texas

Note: Mr Sharp, a former opponent of capital punishment, has written and granted interviews about, testified on and debated the subject of the death penalty, extensively and internationally.