June 17, 2007
The Daily Pilot

Many aca­d­e­mics in recent years have been argu­ing that their stud­ies prove the death penal­ty deters mur­der. The var­i­ous stud­ies show that between 3 and 18 lives could be saved by exe­cut­ing a con­vict­ed killer. Critics ques­tion the data, say­ing that the experts made mis­takes in their method­ol­o­gy. What do you think of this recent data? Has it affect­ed your posi­tion on the issue?

Judaism has always believed in cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment based upon Biblical Law.

A man must stand tri­al accord­ing to due process of law. You shall not mur­der is the sixth of the Ten Commandments. It is fol­lowed by anoth­er of God’s Decrees that ​“if you shed the blood of your broth­er, then your blood shall be shed in its place.”

It should be not­ed that ​“one should not bear false wit­ness against his neigh­bor.” Therefore, cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is enforced based upon a wit­ness, evi­dence and a unan­i­mous judge decree.

Recent pub­lic opin­ion of the 21st cen­tu­ry has not changed my view of opin­ion on the mat­ter of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. It should be car­ried out in cas­es of pre­med­i­tat­ed mur­der.

- RABBI MARC RUBENSTEIN

Statisticians cite research on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment as exam­ples of peo­ple decid­ing what point they want to make before col­lect­ing data in ways that will prove their point. Not only are there con­flict­ing stud­ies as to whether or not the death penal­ty deters mur­der, there is also data on dif­fer­ent sides as to whether or not cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is applied just­ly to minori­ties, the poor and those who can­not afford ade­quate legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion.

I appre­ci­ate the con­clu­sion of the American Bar Assn. that admin­is­tra­tion of the death penal­ty is ​“a hap­haz­ard maze of unfair prac­tices with no inter­nal con­sis­ten­cy;” the ABA has called for a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions.

Jesus called for redemp­tive and rec­on­cil­ing love of neigh­bor, even of one’s ene­mies; ret­ri­bu­tion and vengeance have no place for his beloveds. Personally, I don’t under­stand how those of us who wor­ship a God who in human life suf­fered cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment can sup­port the death penal­ty; I think that life impris­on­ment with­out any pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole should be a suf­fi­cient ​“deter­rent.” The Episcopal Church has con­sis­tent­ly opposed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment.

The American Jewish Committee cov­ers the most bases best for me in its state­ment of May 6, 1972: ​“Whereas cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment degrades and bru­tal­izes the soci­ety which prac­tices it; and where­as those who seek to retain the death penal­ty have failed to estab­lish its deter­rent effect or to rec­og­nize the fal­li­bil­i­ty of crim­i­nal jus­tice insti­tu­tions; and where­as cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment has too often been dis­crim­i­na­to­ry in its appli­ca­tion and is increas­ing­ly being reject­ed by civ­i­lized peo­ples through­out the world; and where­as we agree that the death penal­ty is cru­el, unjust and incom­pat­i­ble with the dig­ni­ty and self respect of man; now there­fore be it resolved that the American Jewish Committee be record­ed as favor­ing the abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty.”

I, too, con­tin­ue to favor abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty.

- PETER D. HAYNES (THE VERY REV’D CANON)

I stand firm­ly in the anti-death penal­ty camp. The sta­tis­tics that show that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment can sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduce mur­der is cer­tain­ly appeal­ing. After all, who does­n’t want to reduce the num­ber of homi­cides? While the con­cept of vio­lent ret­ri­bu­tion may have worked in an ancient soci­ety, my Christian faith chal­lenges me to respond dif­fer­ent­ly. The God that pun­ish­es acts of mur­der by mur­der­ing is not the God I believe in. I believe that Jesus calls us to take respon­si­bil­i­ty for our actions, peti­tion­ing us to make the wrongs right, beg­ging us to work for a world where oppres­sion, hatred and acts of cru­el­ty and mur­der do not reign. However, he says very clear­ly that we should not attempt to right a wrong with anoth­er wrong.

One of my parish­ioners said it plain­ly: ​“We can­not become that which we abhor.”

I’m not con­vinced of the accu­ra­cy of the sta­tis­tics, but even if it were cor­rect that the death penal­ty is an effec­tive deter­rent, it still does not sway my belief that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is inhu­mane. I believe that whether we like it or not, when we con­done the death penal­ty, cor­po­rate­ly we all become the mur­der­ers we so long to erad­i­cate from our soci­ety.

- REV. SARAH HALVERSON