Cheering for death

Rob Vischer's questions are legitimate and important.  I believe that the correct answers are yes, yes, and yes.  I also agree with Rob that his third question is the most significant one.  Even if one believes, as I do not, that the death penalty in certain cases can be justified, one should not be cheering executions.  I find something troubling even in cheering the execution of a mass murderer, such as Osama bin Laden.  As best I can tell, President Obama effectively ordered bin Laden's execution.  He could have been taken alive, but the SEALs evidently understood that their mission was not to take him alive.  Perhaps others see the matter differently. If, in fact, the SEALs mission was to kill him, whether or not it was necessary to do that, I disagree with the President's decision, though I understand it. The death penalty is a far trickier moral issue than, say, the killing of innocent unborn, mentally handicapped, or frail elderly human beings. Moreover, the Church's teaching historically accepted it (on retributive grounds), though it has now---rightly, in my view---taken another course.  The key thing, though, is that even the execution of someone like bin Laden was nothing to cheer about.  And the same is true of the execution of people convicted of capital crimes in our courts.  Perhaps someone will say, "well, we're not cheering for the death of the offender, we're merely cheering the fact that justice has been done or a threat to public safety has been eliminated."  I would reply that although that is a logical possibility, it is always unwise to cheer.  Cheering in the wake of anyone's death, even if one regards the killing as justified, suggests a lack of awareness of the respect owed to human life as such, and the gravity of any death-dealing action, even one that is justified.