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Agreed. Since "May God have mercy on his soul" is pretty much boilerplate language for executions, we should look at the difference in what Shurtleff says.

When he writes, "May God grant him the mercy he denied his victims," the emphasis is on Garner's crime.

The "May God grant him the mercy..." part is more likely a cultural artifact than religious extremism.

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Same as how our money has 'In God We Trust' written on it. If you're to get up in arms about simple phrases like that, better start objecting to US currency too.

I do object to US currency for having that phrase, since that's an endorsement of religion by the Government itself.

I don't object to the governor's comments, which were made by the Governor as an individual.

It never really sounded like religious endorsement to me. When the President takes the Oath of Office and says "So help me God", I never took that as religious. If he was to utter "God help us" when faced with a particularly grave and insurmountable situation, I wouldn't be thinking 'gee he is religious isn't he'.

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