Once again, for the second time in a few months, the State of Indiana is poised to kill someone found guilty of a capital crime; in this case, Joseph Corcoran, who killed several members of his family in Fort Wayne.
This man is mentally ill. There is no question that, for the protection of society, he should be removed from society and put in a place where he cannot again hurt others. This can be done without killing him in the name of the citizens of this state.
It is the right, and indeed the responsibility, of public authority to "redress the violation of personal and social rights by imposing on the offender an adequate punishment for the crime, as a condition for the offender." — "The Gospel of Life," Pope John Paul II.
However, as the "Catechism of the Catholic Church" says, "If bloodless means are sufficient to defend human lives against an aggressor and to protect public order and safety of persons, public authority must limit itself to such means, because they better correspond to the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person."
Nothing is gained by the killing of Joseph Corcoran, and our great state is tarnished. I call upon the governor to stay the hand of the executioner and commute the sentence to life in prison, through which society can be protected and the dignity of the human person respected.
