Religion and Capital Punishment "God did not invent death, and when living creatures die it gives him no pleasure. He created everything so that it might continue to exist…" (WIS 1:13-14) In the world today, unfortunately, there exists a small minority of humans who believe it appropriate to have the power to take away another individual’s most fundamental right, namely the right to life, through the criminal "justice" process. Upon successful conviction, this process, in some jurisdictions, allows "murderers" to be sentenced to a penalty of death. This raises the important question of the moral ramifications of capital punishment in the eyes of the Catholic Church, God, and