The Torah and the Death Penalty
Rabbi Lewis Warshauer has an interesting torah commentary opposing the death penalty today. After going through the Talmud sections that address it, including the protections it provides against wrongful executions, such as requiring two witnesses be present at trial and thoroughly examined by the Judge, he concludes:
I would advocate for abolition, on the grounds that the capital punishment system in too many states in America is so broken that it cannot be fixed. It is not just a question of procedural safeguards. The criminal justice system in the United States is driven by prosecutors whose main goal is to obtain convictions. Judges are being sidelined. The Jewish legal system, however, is judge-driven. The judge is supposed to be interested in obtaining justice, not in securing the conviction of the defendant. These are not always the same thing. Because execution is irrevocable, inequities for the meantime have to be tolerated. Capital punishment should be abolished until the system can be overhauled. Only then can it correctly be called a justice system.
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