The issue is not about winning — but about truth-seeking and justice.
Rev. Neil Kookoothe
Neil Kookoothe watched quietly as the
state of Ohio killed James Filiaggi.
Kookoothe, a witness during Filiaggi's
2007 execution, saw the condemned man's face turn beet red as lethal fluid ran
through his veins. Beads of sweat glistened on his forehead. Strapped to a
table, his chest and stomach heaved three or four times, Kookoothe recalled.
Then, at age 41, Filiaggi was gone.
"It's surreal when you know that
the state is killing him," said Kookoothe, a Roman Catholic priest who
counseled Filiaggi in the months before he was executed for killing his
ex-wife. "Jimmy was ready to die."
- Kookoothe views capital punishment through a unique lens. He's seen it up close as a priest, but he also has the perspective of a nurse and attorney. After graduating with a communications degree in the early 1980s, Kookoothe felt drawn to the priesthood. Instead, he ended up at nursing school, later working as a licensed nurse at a Toledo, Ohio, hospital intensive care unit. "You saw traumas, gunshot wounds and stabbings," he said. While nursing during the day, he put himself through law school, eventually moving on to work briefly as an attorney in Indiana. But the priesthood kept calling. "It was always in the back of my mind," he said. He eventually settled on a life in the church, graduating from seminary school.
- "We have in our possession, often, information that can be really badly misused."
- In 1988, D'Ambrosio, an Army veteran, was arrested in the stabbing death of 19-year-old Anthony Klann. He was charged with felony murder.
He is a priest, a nurse and an attorney...and as such he pursuit D'Amsosio's case in several appeals and eventually freed him from the wrong accusations and convictions...
- All priests should work for humanitarian causes ...It is not enough to preach...the priests should lead the flock through their practice too.
Kookoothe is a wonderful example...
No comments:
Post a Comment