When is Murder Justified?

I had the incredible honor of hearing Sister Helen Prejean (known by most through Susan Sarandon’s portrayal of her in Dead Man Walking) speak. While already inspired by her life’s work, it was also amazing to me how she could weave in and out of humor and what is obviously an incredibly somber subject.

And so, it seemed fitting to address the matter of the death penalty as my next blog topic. While anyone following the subject knows of the incredible racial and economic disparities inherent in the judicial system, Sister Helen pushed this point even further, asserting that it epitomizes our different wounds — racism, prejudice, and reliance on violence to solve problems we fear.

And so the question for me as a Christian has always been, “When is murder justified?” Never mind the many innocents the state has put to death…even in the case of guilt, how is it that “Thou shall not kill” applies to the individual, but not to the state? How is it we believe as a society that we can stop murder and violence by practicing murder and violence?