Boston Bombing Excludes Catholics

There is some consternation among Roman Catholics over the jury selection criteria for the Boston Bombing case.  One of the criterion states that jurors must be able to impose the death penalty.  The catechism states that the death penalty should only be imposed when there is no other reasonable way for the government to protect society from a criminal.  In modern society, with much better prison security than the past, this is taken to mean that the death penalty is no longer necessary.  Roman Catholics who believe and follow this teaching are not eligible to be on the jury for this case, and this is causing some frustration and controversy.

Unfortunately, the problem is not with the catechism or the jury selection criteria.  The problem is with a fundamental understanding of the justice system.  The catechism has it right, with the strong implication that justice is about protecting society, not about handing out due punishment.  The problem is the assumption that an imprisoned criminal is neither threatening or harmful to society.  Aside from the current jury issue, this is manifested in the fact that the U.S. has some of the highest prison populations per capita in the world.  Prisoners are both a threat and a burden on the people, especially when they are in prison for life.

The problem here is that prisoners cost money.  In fact, they cost a lot of money.  Prison guards are not cheap to pay.  Prisons cost a lot of money to maintain.  Prisoners also require clothing, food, and other amenities.  In the effort to avoid cruel and unusual punishment, expenses for prisoners are not trivial.  Most modern prisons provide televisions, computers, and fairly nice recreational equipment for prisoners as well.  Prisoners probably cost more than the typical American barely surviving in poverty.  They certainly cost more (and have a higher quality of living) that the typical American college student.

Now, when a criminal is in prison for 6 months or a few years, and if that criminal comes out of prison as a functioning member of society, it is possible for him or her to eventually pay the debt to society incurred in prison through paying taxes and improve society in general.  Those in prison for life can never pay back this debt, and thus they are a permanent burden on society.  The money spend on permanent prisoners could, and probably should, be spent helping upstanding citizens who are in poverty due to any number of circumstances.  By spending this money on permanent prisoners, we are allowing those prisoners to remain a threat to the safety and security of society at large and specifically of those who need that money for their survival.  In other words, when there is no chance of reprieve, the harm that a prisoner will ultimately do to society completely justifies the death penalty, even according to the wording of the catechism.

That aside, prisoners themselves should also be regarded as part of society.  If a terrorist is put in prison with other prisoners, that terrorist becomes a threat to the safety of those other prisoners.  Even if you don't by the assertion that the cost to society constitutes serious harm, it is impossible to deny that especially dangerous prisoners, that may be a serious threat to other prisoners, constitute a threat to society as well (consider, what if the prisoner murdered by this criminal is your brother, who is serving time for some desperate but trivial crime).

In my opinion, any Roman Catholic who feels forced to opt out of jury duty for this case, because of catechism teachings, does not understand the justice system.  I am not trying to discriminate.  I am saying it like it is.  The U.S. justice system is no where near a point where it is so infallible that a terrorist that is put in prison for life is not still a significant threat to society.  Those who oppose the death penalty on the religious grounds that we should not impose that penalty if we can protect the people perfectly fine without it need to consider whether they may be "trusting in the arm of flesh" too much.