This article by two veteran death penalty litigators examines Judaism’s perspective on the death penalty. Earlier this month, Jews celebrated Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Two people have been executed so far in October.
As Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, falls in a month rife with executions, perhaps the United States should pause to determine how to atone for implementing its broken system of capital punishment, a system that is merely an expression of the instinct for revenge. As a nation, we could begin this process of atonement by repealing the death penalty. We could atone by replacing the death penalty with alternative punishments for capital offenses, such as long prison sentences, or life without parole. We could atone by having our courts retry cases in which the guilt of the defendants is in serious doubt, such as Troy Anthony Davis’ case.
These actions of atonement won’t restore the lives of innocent people who were put to death, or heal their families. It won’t restore the millions of taxpayer dollars misspent on a flawed death penalty system. But it will lead our nation away from a state-sponsored system of revenge. To paraphrase what Holocaust survivor, Nobel Laureate and death penalty opponent Elie Wiesel has said, we would no longer be agents of the Angel of Death.
(c/o Stand Down)
