"The choice for the judge who believes that the death penalty is immoral is resignation rather than simply ignoring duly enacted constitutional laws and sabotaging the death penalty," Scalia said. "He has taken an oath to apply those laws, and has been given no power to supplant them with rules of his own." He added that if a judge "feels strongly enough" against state-sanctioned murder, he or she can "lead a political campaign" to abolish it, "and if that fails, lead a revolution. But rewrite the laws he cannot do."

While claiming to be "judicially neutral" on capital punishment, Scalia rejected a 1995 letter by the pope that declared the death penalty should only be used "when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society." The letter, he states "effectively urges the retirement of Catholics from public life" since it instructs those "running for legislative office...to oppose the death penalty.

"Most of them would not be elected," the Supreme Court justice said, adding that "I do not think it would be a good thing if American Catholics were ineligible to go on the bench in all jurisdictions imposing the death penalty," or if they "were subject to recusal when called for jury duty in capital cases."

During the question-and-answer period at the conference Scalia was confronted by a Black man who said he was a victim of cop brutality and had wrongly spent 10 years in an Illinois prison. "You have innocent people on death row," the man stated. "I'm scared you're a justice."

Scalia acknowledged being "part of the criminal law machinery that imposes death." He said that executing or imprisoning innocent people are among "the risks of living in organized human society.... It's better than the alternative, which is to be subjected to constant crime."

For the "believing Christian," he asserted, "death is no big deal."  
 
 
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