Court’s Blocking of Execution

Re “High Court Leery of Bid to Spare Killer,” Dec. 10:

What “obviously irritates” and “clearly irks” Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy is a “quite unseemly” delay by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which voided Thomas Thompson’s death sentence hours before he was scheduled to die last August. I am appalled at the court’s lack of concern about the substantial doubts of many reasonable judges, lawyers and others, including several proponents of capital punishment, about Thompson’s guilt for the crime for which he was sentenced to death.

My own absolute opposition to the death penalty is based on my strong belief in the inherent sacredness of human life as well as my obligation as a Christian to be faithful to the teachings of Jesus Christ, which call us to reconciliation and forgiveness. But even many supporters of the death penalty want far greater certainty about the guilt of the condemned person than exists in this case.

This court’s unseemly preoccupation with neat process rather than the sometimes “messy” truth may mean that California will kill Thompson in our name. But at least Kennedy won’t be irked and Scalia won’t be irritated.

SISTER SUZANNE JABRO CSJ

Director, Office of Detention

Ministry, L.A. Archdiocese