An American Catholic judge has sentenced a serial killer to death, arguing that to do otherwise would be “theologically wrong”, despite the Pope’s recent assertion that the death penalty is inadmissible.
Patrick Dinkelacker, a common pleas judge in Hamilton County, Ohio, sentenced Anthony Kirkland to death row on August 28. The prosecuting attorney Joseph Deters, also a Catholic, had argued in favour of the death penalty in this case.
During Kirkland’s sentencing, Judge Dinkelacker said: "As a person who morally believes in the sanctity of life, to judge another to determine if the imposition of the death penalty is appropriate is not a duty I take lightly.
