Arlington Bishop Paul Loverde has called for
mercy for the soon to be executed sniper, John Allen Muhammad, while a Pennsylvania jury has spared the life of Pittsburgh man, Terrell
Yarborough, who was convicted of the murder of two Franciscan
University students.
Bishop Loverde urged that Muhammad's sentence be commuted to life in prison without possibility of parole, the Catholic Review reports.
"In the needles of lethal injection, we see the manifestation of despair," the bishop wrote in his column for the Nov. 5 issue of the Arlington Catholic Herald, his diocesan newspaper. "And in this despair, in advocating the use of the death penalty, our society has moved beyond the legitimate judgment of crimes.
"Brothers and sisters, we are better than this," he added. "We are called to be more than slaves to despair; we are called to be heralds of hope."
Muhammad, 48, was scheduled to die by lethal injection in a Virginia prison Nov. 10 for the Oct. 9, 2002, murder of Dean Harold Meyers, 53, one of 10 victims killed during a three-week spree police said was carried out by Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo in the Washington area.
Malvo, 17 at the time of the shootings, is serving a life sentence in a Virginia prison.
Bishop Loverde acknowledged that the crime spree that left "entire communities in shock and fear" could lead many to "desire revenge and ... even say that such a person deserves to die for what he did."
"It is understandable for us - all of us, myself included - to have these reactions, and to be outraged at the way in which innocent lives were so senselessly taken, with their families left to mourn and to ask questions which have no satisfactory answers," he said.
But the bishop said "God's transforming mercy" calls people to move beyond such emotions.
"We are called to choose hope - hope in the redemption of an immortal soul - over the despair embedded in the death penalty," he added.
"When life without the possibility of parole in a maximum security prison is an option, we have no need for the death penalty," he said.
He urged prayers for the families of the victims of the sniper attacks, asking God "to help them experience the healing that only his hand can offer."
"Let us unite our prayers and penance for John Allen Muhammad that he may experience God's redemptive mercy, for the victims of his crimes and their families, and for the courage in our commonwealth to choose the path of hope instead of despair," Bishop Loverde said.
Meanwhile, the Pennsylvania verdict means 29-year-old Terrell Yarbrough will spend
life in prison for slaying Franciscan University students Aaron Land and Brian Muha.
Yarbrough's attorney said that he has such a low IQ that his execution should be barred by a
2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision banning the execution of the mentally
disabled.
FULL STORY @
Pa. jury spares execution in Ohio student slayings (Philly.com)
Virginia bishop urges mercy for convicted sniper set to be executed (Catholic Review)