On this blog, I’ve previously blogged about how the death penalty deters criminals from committing violent crimes. And in another post, I reported on the findings of famous systematic theologian Wayne Grudem about whether the Bible supports or opposes the death penalty. Well, the actions of Joe Biden, a secular leftist, have provided an occasion for us to look at the death penalty again.

Here’s a very interesting article at the The Federalist written by famous conservative theologian Dr. Robert Gagnon.

He writes:

Two days before Christmas, in the waning days of his presidency, Joe Biden commuted the death sentences of 37 out of 40 federal prisoners to a life sentence. Only by hearing what they had done can we begin to grapple with their offense. Many of them were responsible for gruesome murders of multiple persons.

In the rest of the article, he looks at some of the murderers that Joe Biden pardoned.

Here are some:

Jorge Avila-Torrez “sexually assaulted and stabbed to death two girls — Laura Hobbs, 8, and Krystal Tobias, 9 — who had been riding their bicycles in their neighborhood in a suburb north of Chicago in 2005. Four years later, he strangled naval officer Amanda Snell, 20, inside her barrack in Arlington, Virginia.” He subsequently admitted to these crimes. A year after that, he kidnapped, raped, and strangled a woman in a secluded area of northern Virginia, leaving her for dead by the side of a road. She survived and reported the crime to police, finally leading to his arrest and conviction.

[…]Marvin Gabrion murdered 19-year-old Rachel Timmerman before she could testify in a 1997 rape case against him. He handcuffed her, covered her eyes and mouth with duct tape, wrapped her in chains, weighted her down with concrete blocks, and threw her into a lake alive. He also murdered Rachel’s 11-month-old daughter.

[…]Richard Jackson in 1994 kidnapped, raped, and murdered 22-year-old Karen Styles when she was going for a jog in Asheville, North Carolina. A hunter found her partially naked body duct-taped to a tree, with a gunshot wound to the head. Jackson later confessed to the crime.

This one is interesting because it shows the difference that the death penalty makes – it deters people who have life sentences from killing anyone else:

Anthony Battle “murdered an Atlanta prison guard with a hammer in 1994 while serving a life sentence for murdering his wife, a US Marine, in 1987.” Battle confessed that he killed the guard because he was “tired of being bossed around” and wanted to kill the first guard he saw. He showed no remorse. At Battle’s trial, three prison guards from the facility testified that Battle’s actions emboldened other prisoners to threaten staff because “without the death penalty, all prisoners … believe there is nothing that can happen to them.”

Dr. Gagnon says that it’s an injustice when someone who murders escapes the approriate punishment:

Biden’s action in commuting nearly all federal death sentences to life sentences for heinous murderers should generate a sense of moral outrage. This moral outrage emanates not from a bloodthirsty desire for vengeance but from a sense of justice regarding the value and dignity of innocent life. Taking the innocent life of one made in God’s image, especially in particularly heinous murders such as the above, requires the forfeiture of the murderer’s life (see Genesis 9:6).

One question I find myself asking is why should taxpayers get the bill for letting these people live to the end of their natural lives? They should either have to pay for their own upkeep, or family members should pay. Why do taxpayers have to get the bill? If Joe Biden wants to be so generous, then why doesn’t he get the bill for it? It seems like the secular left is always being generous with other people’s money, and being non-judgmental by risking other people’s safety.