The Pope on the Death Penalty - What Does it Mean?

A lot - and, yet, not binding.

Read about it here.

And here.

I'm generally of the idea that only the cruelest offenders should die by state hand - those that torture, imprison, pick on the helpless and those who were put under their protection - and LWOP for the rest of the 1st degree and repeat 2nd degree murderers.

In fact, to keep the chuckleheads from trying to release those LWOP guys on 'compassionate' grounds, I'd favored a sentence of death - with the proviso that the execution be delayed permanently - UNLESS that person seeks to be freed on any grounds except actual innocence or prosecutorial misconduct of substantial degree. In which case, the full sentence kicks in immediately.

I do believe that testimony by someone who is accepting a plea bargain should never be used for death penalty cases. The opportunity for skewing testimony is too great.