Today Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was given the death penalty in the Boston marathon bombing in 2013. There was no doubt he was guilty of the crime but who gives the State, via the jury, the right to take human life?

The Catholic Church and the Consistent Ethic of Life is committed to protection of human life which is threatened in today’s world by war, abortion, poverty, racism, the death penalty and euthanasia. For some the life ethics only applies to certain threats to life, like abortion. Some Anti-abortion people claim you are taking a human life in an abortion yet are willing to support the taking of an adult human life. When someone authorizes the bombing of house of suspected enemy in Pakistan they are killing whoever is in the house, the person they seek or innocent children.

To be consistent in ethic of life is difficult but one you realize that every human life is sacred and precious in eyes of God, no matter how small the person is or if the person has committed a terrible crime, you really have no choice. There might me a question of is this human life, but once you claim it is, being an unborn baby or the ‘enemy’ on battlefield you must respect it and protect it. There may be some cases of self-defense when taking a human life is justified but when the alternative to death penalty is life in prison without any chance of patrol the consistent life ethic says we must choose life over taking of life.

The Catholic Church used to justify death penalty when it was the only way to protect society. But we not have a more effective and less expensive way to accomplish this goal.

However, the urge for revenge or making people pay for crimes, some even call it justice is strong. We want an ‘eye for an eye’. Mahatma Gandhi said: An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. Politician, victims or family members often say they want ‘justice’ for the person that committed the crime or who they suspect. Often what they are saying they want revenge or punishment to the person who did harm to them, family or government.

In this day and age of ‘instant results’ many people carry a gun so they can shoot someone they feel is a threat to them. Sister Helen Prejean, a Roman Catholic nun and prominent opponent of the death penalty, testified on Monday that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the convicted Boston Marathon bomber, had expressed sympathy for his victims. She believes he was genuine in his remorse and sorrow. Her testimony did not matter since us as a society must have our ‘pound of flesh’ for this heinous crime. Will the death penalty stop others from killing? He has been shown not be a deterrent any more than life in prison. Will the killing of Dzhokhar Tsaraev motivate others to take similar action, out of revenge or just hate of America? Probably. The “War on Terrorism” has created more “terrorist” than there ever was before 9/11 and the “War on Terrorism”.

The killing of human life just leads to more killing of human life.

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