S
stillsmallvoice
Guest
Hi all!
I voted “I have no position” simply because I do not know all the facts of the murders. Nor do I know upon what evidence he was both convicted and sentenced to death.
As an orthodox Jew, who is well aware that the Torah prescribes the death penalty in many instances, I’ll say the following:
The way I understand Jewish law (and I am not a rabbi), is that a duly constituted & recognized rabbinical court could only apply the death penalty only if all of the following conditions were met: a) The offending party was mentally competent, b) The offending party had been warned by qualified authorities, prior to the commission of said act, about the specific law & the penalties for violating it, c) There were 2 eyewitnesses to the offending act, d) The offending party was of legal age & did not act under conpulsion or durress. Moreover, under Jewish law, hearsay, circumstantial evidence & confessions (in capital cases) are absolutely inadmissible. Executions immediately followed conviction (often on the same day) and were not open to the public. (See tinyurl.com/4qdkz, the Jewish Encyclopedia entry on “Capital Punishment.”)
I certainly support the death penalty in theory. However, from what I’ve been able to read in the last 19 years (that’s how long I’ve been living here), I have problems with the way the death penalty is implemented in practice in the US. I never sat on a jury before I moved here (Israel doesn’t have juries) but I have often thought about it. I would be unable, in good conscience, to vote to impose the death penalty, if I were a member of a jury deciding a capital case, if the case was based on circumstantial evidence (however damning), hearsay or the confession of the accused (i.e. on anything other than the incontrivertible testimony of more than one unimpeachable eyewitness).
This ou.org/torah/savannah/5760/behaalotcha60.htm is an excellent essay by an American orthodox rabbi on capital punishment in the USA; I certainly agree with his views. I also submit these: ou.org/public/statements/2000/death%20penalty00.htm, aish.com/societyWork/work/The_Jewish_Ethicist_Death_is_Different.asp & ou.org/public/statements/2001/nate30.htm.
By the way, (Orthodox) Jewish rabbinic law is not the law of the land in the modern State of Israel (see [)tinyurl.com/blwok](http://tinyurl.com/blwok). Although we do have the death penalty on the books here, the only person Israel has ever executed was the infamous Nazi Adolf Eichman. No rabbinical court has had the civil authority to apply the death penalty according to Jewish law for a very long time. No such court has sat in the Holy Land since the 4th-5th century CE (what we say instead of “AD”). There were Jewish courts in parts of medieval Europe & in various Islamic countries that, having been given communal autonomy by the civil authorities, did so.
I am curious. What is official Roman Catholic doctrine on capital punishment? Does the catechism say anything about it? Thanks!
Be well!
ssv
I voted “I have no position” simply because I do not know all the facts of the murders. Nor do I know upon what evidence he was both convicted and sentenced to death.
As an orthodox Jew, who is well aware that the Torah prescribes the death penalty in many instances, I’ll say the following:
The way I understand Jewish law (and I am not a rabbi), is that a duly constituted & recognized rabbinical court could only apply the death penalty only if all of the following conditions were met: a) The offending party was mentally competent, b) The offending party had been warned by qualified authorities, prior to the commission of said act, about the specific law & the penalties for violating it, c) There were 2 eyewitnesses to the offending act, d) The offending party was of legal age & did not act under conpulsion or durress. Moreover, under Jewish law, hearsay, circumstantial evidence & confessions (in capital cases) are absolutely inadmissible. Executions immediately followed conviction (often on the same day) and were not open to the public. (See tinyurl.com/4qdkz, the Jewish Encyclopedia entry on “Capital Punishment.”)
I certainly support the death penalty in theory. However, from what I’ve been able to read in the last 19 years (that’s how long I’ve been living here), I have problems with the way the death penalty is implemented in practice in the US. I never sat on a jury before I moved here (Israel doesn’t have juries) but I have often thought about it. I would be unable, in good conscience, to vote to impose the death penalty, if I were a member of a jury deciding a capital case, if the case was based on circumstantial evidence (however damning), hearsay or the confession of the accused (i.e. on anything other than the incontrivertible testimony of more than one unimpeachable eyewitness).
This ou.org/torah/savannah/5760/behaalotcha60.htm is an excellent essay by an American orthodox rabbi on capital punishment in the USA; I certainly agree with his views. I also submit these: ou.org/public/statements/2000/death%20penalty00.htm, aish.com/societyWork/work/The_Jewish_Ethicist_Death_is_Different.asp & ou.org/public/statements/2001/nate30.htm.
By the way, (Orthodox) Jewish rabbinic law is not the law of the land in the modern State of Israel (see [)tinyurl.com/blwok](http://tinyurl.com/blwok). Although we do have the death penalty on the books here, the only person Israel has ever executed was the infamous Nazi Adolf Eichman. No rabbinical court has had the civil authority to apply the death penalty according to Jewish law for a very long time. No such court has sat in the Holy Land since the 4th-5th century CE (what we say instead of “AD”). There were Jewish courts in parts of medieval Europe & in various Islamic countries that, having been given communal autonomy by the civil authorities, did so.
I am curious. What is official Roman Catholic doctrine on capital punishment? Does the catechism say anything about it? Thanks!
Be well!
ssv