On January 15 of this year, the State of Virginia executed Ricky Gray by lethal injection.
In 2006, Gray and his nephew murdered seven people over a period of six days. Gray was convicted of killing a family of four who left their front door open on New Year’s Day 2006. The family had been beaten, bound, and repeatedly stabbed. Their house was then set on fire.
Gray received the death sentence for the murders of 9-year-old Stella Harvey and her 4-year-old sister Ruby. He was also sentenced to life in prison for killing their parents.
Gray also confessed to the November 2005 killing of his own wife.
Gray’s nephew, Ray Dandridge, is serving a life sentence due murders unrelated to the Harvey family.
In the weeks before his execution, Ricky Gray publicly apologized stating, “I’m sorry they had to be a victim of my despair. “Remorse is not a deep enough word for how I feel. I know my words can't bring anything back, but I continuously feel horrible for the circumstances that I put them through. I robbed them from a lifelong supply of joy,” he said in an audio message posted on a website advocating his clemency.
Following Gray's execution, Catholic Bishop Francis DiLorenzo of Richmond and Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington said in a joint statement that that the death penalty should be abandoned because the state can protect itself in other ways.
Bishop DiLorenzo and Bishop Burbridge do not represent the official teaching of the Church whose Magisterium does not and never has advocated unqualified abolition of the death penalty.
Even the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, who curiously advance the abolishment of the death penalty, acknowledge the moral right of the state take the life of a person guilty of an extremely serious crime.
In fact, the right of the state to inflict the death penalty has been the consistent teaching of the Church founded upon the Scriptures as well as the teachings of St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, the Council of Trent and modern Popes as well.
St. Paul in his hearing before Festus says, “If then I am a wrongdoer, and have committed anything for which I deserve to die, I do not seek to escape death.” (Acts 25:11) Very clearly, St. Paul acknowledges that the state continues to have the power of life and death in the administration of justice.
Moreover, it should not be forgotten that when the Scriptures first introduce St. Paul (Saul at that point in his life), he is advocating and affirming the stoning to death of St. Stephen for the crime of blasphemy.
St. Augustine had to say on this topic: “ . . . there are some exceptions made by the divine authority to its own law, that men may not be put to death. These exceptions are of two kinds, being justified either by a general law, or by a special commission granted for a time to some individual. And in this latter case, he to whom authority is delegated, and who is but the sword in the hand of him who uses it, is not himself responsible for the death he deals. And, accordingly, they who have waged war in obedience to the divine command, or in conformity with His laws, have represented in their persons the public justice or the wisdom of government, and in this capacity have put to death wicked men; such persons have by no means violated the commandment, You shall not kill.” (City of God, Bk I, 21)
Augustine adds that capital punishment protects those who are undergoing it from further sinning, which might continue if their life went on.
Citing Exodus 22, which specifies that certain categories of wrongdoers shall not be permitted to live, St. Thomas Aquinas, for his part, unequivocally states that civil rulers can execute justly to protect the peace of the state. St. Thomas finds frivolous the argument that murderers should be allowed to live in hopes of their repentance, questioning how many innocent people should have to suffer death while waiting for the guilty to repent.
While capital punishment is not justifiable as an act of vengeance according to Aquinas, it is justifiable to help secure the safety of the community by removing a dangerous wrongdoer and deterring others from his example; in addition, it is an act of justice, allowing expiation for the wrongdoer’s sin.
The Catechism of the Council of Trent, composed under the supervision of St. Charles Borromeo, teaches: “Far from being guilty of breaking the commandment against unjust killing, such an execution of justice is precisely an act of obedience to it. For the purpose of the law is to protect and foster human life. This purpose is fulfilled when the legitimate authority of the State is exercised by taking the guilty lives of those who have taken innocent lives.”
Pope Pius XII stated, “In the case of the death penalty the State does not dispose of the individual’s right to life. Rather public authority limits itself to depriving the offender of the good of life in expiation for his guilt, after he, through his crime, deprived himself of his own right to life.”
Even Pope St. John Paul II, perhaps the most vocal opponent of the death penalty, affirmed the right of the state to execute persons guilty of serious crime but to exercise an abundance of care in doing so, seeking instead to punish criminals by other severe penalties when feasible and possible.
Certainly, the unequivocal calls of such leaders like Bishop Francis DiLorenzo and Bishop Michael F. Burbidge give the false impression that, to be in union with Church teaching, a person must unequivocally oppose the death penalty.
The Bishops know that such is not the case and should be more circumspect and responsible in avoiding such misconceptions.
It must be noted that almost a decade passed from the time that Ricky Gray committed his heinous crimes until his execution. During that period, he was afforded every due process of law as well as many pleas for clemency. His execution was not an act of vengeance but the administration of justice. Catholics in good faith have a right to hold to that belief and should not be coerced into thinking otherwise.
Even so, those of us who continue to uphold the imposition of the death penalty as the moral right of the state, ask the Lord’s mercy upon the innocent victims and those who mourn them. Moreover, even as the death penalty is rightly imposed Ricky Gray who unjustly and violently destroyed their lives, we ask that the Lord to have mercy upon his soul.
Such is right and fitting and just both in the eyes of men and in the eyes of God Himself.
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