“As Jews, as cit­i­zens of a nation ded­i­cat­ed to lib­er­ty and jus­tice, we believe that gov­ern­ments must pro­tect the dig­ni­ty and rights of every human being. The use of the death penal­ty, in America, fails to live up to this basic require­ment,” wrote Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz (pic­tured), founder and President of Uri L’Tzedek, the Orthodox Jewish social jus­tice move­ment. In a col­umn for Jewish Journal, Rabbi Yanklowitz out­lines the rea­sons for Jewish oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty, focus­ing par­tic­u­lar­ly on the issue of inno­cence. “[O]ur American sys­tem today lacks the high­est safe­guards to pro­tect the lives of the inno­cent and uses cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment all too read­i­ly,” he says. ​“It is time to see the death penal­ty for what it is: not as jus­tice gone awry, but a symp­tom of injus­tice as sta­tus quo” with ​“con­se­quences [that] … pro­duce racial­ly dis­parate out­comes.” Rabbi Yanklowitz cites numer­ous stud­ies that have esti­mat­ed 2 – 7% of U.S. pris­on­ers are like­ly inno­cent, then ties the issue to Jewish teach­ings. ​“Jewish law strong­ly upholds the prin­ci­ple that the inno­cent should be spared undue pun­ish­ment,” he explains, recount­ing the bib­li­cal sto­ry of God agree­ing to spare Sodom and Gomorrah if there are even ten right­eous peo­ple in those cities. He lauds the work of orga­ni­za­tions like the Innocence Project, which work to free peo­ple who have been wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed. ​“This is noth­ing short of the cham­pi­oning of jus­tice over inequity, and as a com­mu­ni­ty, we must sup­port their work. Jewish com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers should call for an end to this cru­el prac­tice, but also for the begin­ning of a new par­a­digm of fair, equi­table, and restora­tive jus­tice,” he concludes.

(S. Yanklowitz, ​“Jewish Leaders Take A Stand Against The Death Penalty,” Jewish Journal, February 17, 2016.) See Religion and New Voices.

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