Boston bombing jury excludes some Catholics

[hrmjustin]

G. Jeffrey MacDonald

BOSTON (RNS) As the quest for a jury in the Boston Marathon bombing trial approaches its fourth week, some of the area’s 2 million Roman Catholics are growing frustrated with criteria that effectively disqualify followers of church teachings.

Potential jurors in bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s trial must be able to impose the death penalty or a life sentence with no possibility of release. That standard eliminates Catholics who heed the catechism of the Catholic Church, which says a death sentence is not to be used when “non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people’s safety from the aggressor.” Cases warranting the death penalty “are very rare, if not practically non-existent,” according to the catechism, because the government has other means to keep the public safe from convicts.

“It is both ironic and unfortunate that Catholics who understand and embrace this teaching will be systematically excluded from the trial,” says the Rev. James Bretzke, professor of moral theology at Boston College. “It is frustrating.”

http://www.religionnews.com/2015/01/26/boston-bombing-jury-excludes-catholics/

[TexasProgresive]

1. This would exclude anyone, including atheists

who will not impose the death penalty from any jury.

[No Vested Interest]

2. I have long been conscious that I would not qualify

Last edited Mon Jan 26, 2015, 07:35 PM - Edit history (1)

as a juror in a case where the death penalty is a possible choice.

To me, this seems wrong, in that I am part of the whole population of "peers" of the accused.
If a large portion of society does not believe in imposing the death penalty and are thus disqualified from serving, the accused is not getting a true cross-section of his/her "peers".