This was a really fun conversation.

About 5 years ago, Thomas Lackey studied his way into the Catholic Church. One of the topics he studied extensively was the death penalty. In this interview, we ask some questions both for and against the death penalty.

Here’s a couple of resources we mention in the discussion:

By Man Shall His Blood Be Shed: A Catholic Defense of Capital Punishment – by Edward Feser

It is lawful to put a man to death by public authority: it is even a duty of princes and of judges to condemn to death criminals who deserve it; and it is the duty of the officers of justice to execute the sentence ; God himself wishes malefactors to be punished. – St. Alphonsus de Liguori, Instructions on the Commandments and the Sacraments

Another kind of lawful slaying belongs to the civil authorities, to whom is entrusted power of life and death, by the legal and judicious exercise of which they punish the guilty and protect the innocent. The just use of this power, far from involving the crime of murder, is an act of paramount obedience to this Commandment which prohibits murder. The end of the Commandment- is the preservation and security of human life. Now the punishments inflicted by the civil authority, which is the legitimate avenger of crime, naturally tend to this end, since they give security to life by repressing outrage and violence. Hence these words of David: In the morning I put to death all the wicked of the land, that I might cut off all the workers of iniquity from the city of the Lord. – Catechism from the Council of Trent, The Fifth Commandment

The death inflicted by the judge profits the sinner, if he be converted, unto the expiation of his crime; and, if he be not converted, it profits so as to put an end to the sin, because the sinner is thus deprived of the power to sin anymore. – St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Secunda Secundae, Q.25 A.6

If the judge were to remit punishment inordinately, he would inflict an injury on the community, for whose good it behooves ill-deeds to be punished, in order that. men may avoid sin. Hence the text, after appointing the punishment of the seducer, adds (Deuteronomy [13:11]): “That all Israel hearing may fear, and may do no more anything like this.” He would also inflict harm on the injured person; who is compensated by having his honor restored in the punishment of the man who has injured him.  – St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Secunda Secundae, Q.67 A.4

It is in no way contrary to the commandment, “Thou shalt not kill” … for the representatives of the State’s authority to put criminals to death, according to law or the rule of rational justice. – St. Augustine, The City of God, Book 1, chapter 21

Concerning secular power we declare that without mortal sin it is possible to exercise a judgment of blood as long as one proceeds to bring punishment not in hatred but in judgment, not incautiously but advisedly. – Pope Innocent III, Profession of Faith Prescribed for Durand of Osca and His Waldensian Companions

Some have held that the killing of man is prohibited altogether. They believe that judges in the civil courts are murderers, who condemn men to death according to the laws. Against this St.