Joe Deters reconciled his faith with the death penalty: 'There is evil in this world'

Sharon Coolidge | Cincinnati Enquirer

Show Caption Hide Caption Opening statements in Anthony Kirkland sentencing case Opening statements for the Kirkland sentencing

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters a long time ago reconciled his Catholic faith with the idea that sometimes he must seek the death penalty in killings that are the worst of the worst.

His faith allowed the death penalty in limited circumstances and Deters agreed that for the worst of the worst criminals, a death sentence was sometimes necessary.

But as Deters pursues a death penalty sentence against convicted serial killer Anthony Kirkland, he woke up to a published report that Pope Francis changed Catholic Church teaching about the death penalty. In a new policy published Thursday, the pope now says, the death penalty is always "inadmissible" because it "attacks" the inherent dignity of all humans.

It didn't change the mind of the longtime prosecutor.

"My dear friends who are priests don't understand what we're dealing with," Deters said. "There is evil in this world and there comes a point where society needs to defend itself."

Kirkland, he said, "would kill again if he got the chance."

Kirkland, 49, killed three women and two teenage girls before he was caught in 2009. He killed Leona Douglas, 28, in 1989, when he was 18 years old and served a 16-year prison sentence. He was released in 2003 and Kirkland started killing again in 2006. Kirkland killed Casonya Crawford, 14; Mary Jo Newton, 45; and Kimya Rolison, 25, in 2006. And then he killed Esme Kenney, 13, in 2009.

He strangled or stabbed his victims, then burned their bodies and fled. He told police, in a confession, "Fire purifies."

Kirkland was convicted in 2010 and is serving life prison terms for killing the adult women. But a death penalty sentence imposed for killing the teenagers was overturned by the Ohio Supreme Court, prompting a new sentencing.

Kirkland's defense is pleading for a life prison term, saying Kirkland is mentally ill, was abused and neglected as a child and has head injuries that account for the violence.

More: Serial killer Anthony Kirkland killed 5 women. Will jury go for the death penalty (Again)?

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More: Kasich spares record number of death row inmates

Six women and six men are hearing the case. There were two days of serious questioning of jurors, including how they felt about the death penalty. Twelve members of the pool of 120 said they could not, for personal and religious reasons, sign off on the death penalty. And they were excused.

The Vatican said Francis approved a change to the Catechism of the Catholic Church — the compilation of official Catholic teaching. Previously, the catechism said the church didn't exclude recourse to capital punishment "if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor."

The new teaching, contained in Catechism No. 2267, says the previous policy is outdated, that there are other ways to protect the common good and that the church should instead commit itself to working to end capital punishment.

Pope Francis says death penalty is ‘inadmissible’ The Pope has declared the Death Penalty Inadmissible in all cases. Veuer's Sam Berman has the full story.

"The church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide," reads the new text, which was approved in May but only published Thursday.

The death penalty has been abolished in most of Europe and South America, but it is still in use in the United States and in several countries in Asia, Africa and the Mideast.

Francis has long railed against the death penalty, insisting it can never be justified, no matter how heinous the crime. He has also long made prison ministry a mainstay of his vocation.

The Enquirer reported earlier this year that Hamilton County has sent more people to death row and is responsible for more executions than any county in Ohio since capital punishment returned to the state in 1981.

The county has a larger death row population per capita than the home counties of Los Angeles, Miami or San Diego. And it has more people on death row than all but 21 of the more than 3,000 counties in the United States.

More: Why is a murder trial here so much more likely to end with a death sentence?

In a statewide look at the death penalty, the Associated Press reported this week Ohio Gov. John Kasich has finished dealing with executions for the remainder of his time in office, following a modern-era record of death penalty commutations.

The Republican governor spared seven men from execution during his two terms in office, including commutations on March 26 and July 20. Kasich allowed 15 executions to proceed, including the July 18 execution of Robert Van Hook for a strangling, stabbing and dismembering a man he met in a Cincinnati bar more than 30 years ago.

Not since Democrat Mike DiSalle spared six death row inmates in the early 1960s has an Ohio governor spared so many killers during periods when the state had an active death chamber. DiSalle allowed six executions to proceed.

The Associated Press contributed to this story with reporting on the pope's decision and Ohio's use of the death penalty. Enquirer reporter Dan Horn also contributed.