Dear Willa:

It would appear that you may be risking grave sin yourself by your attitude of revenge and your wishing to condemn this man to hell.

We have an example of this unChristian attitude in the Bible with another case that, at the time in the first century, warranted execution.

Most of us know the story -- the woman caught in adultery (John 8:3-11:

Jesus did not criticize the people for judging the woman an adulteress. She was. He criticized them for condeming her.

You wishing Mark Schwab to hell places you at risk for going to hell yourself. Your uncharity and grave sin of rash judgment is profound. Mark Schwab has been sentenced for his crime. That does not mean that he cannot ask forgiveness from God while on Death Row. It Schwab as repented and asked God's forgiveness then despite his crime he may go to heaven. God will forgive ANYONE, even Hitler, if that person genuinely repents and seeks forgiveness. We cannot know the heart of Mark Schwab. Your statement to wish him to hell is the grave sin of rash judgment. Shame on you.

Second, the Church does allow for the death penalty AS A LAST RESORT and only under certain conditions. You need to read the WHOLE teaching and not just the part that suits your sinful bitterness and revenge.

Here is the WHOLE teaching:

2266 The efforts of the state to curb the spread of behavior harmful to people's rights and to the basic rules of civil society correspond to the requirement of safeguarding the common good. Legitimate public authority has the right and the duty to inflict punishment proportionate to the gravity of the offense. Punishment has the primary aim of redressing the disorder introduced by the offense. When it is willingly accepted by the guilty party, it assumes the value of expiation. Punishment then, in addition to defending public order and protecting people's safety, has a medicinal purpose: as far as possible, it must contribute to the correction of the guilty party.

2267 Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.

If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people's safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity with the dignity of the human person.

Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm - without definitely taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself - the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity "are very rare, if not practically non-existent."

There is no excuse for the death penalty in the United States or any other "first world" country. In fact, the only "first world" countries still barbaric enough to impose the death penalty are, I believe, the United States and Japan.

In the 1990's there were 52 men on death row PROVEN to be innocent. The number of innocent men killed by the State is unknown, but even one is in utter violation of the dignity of man, the concept of Justuce, and the civilization we claim to possess.