ספר המצוות לרמב"ם
מצוות לא תעשה ר"צ
ואם לא נקיים את העונשים באומד החזק מאד - הרי לא יוכל לקרות יותר משנפטר את החוטא; אבל אם נקיים את העונשים באומד ובדימוי אפשר שביום מן הימים נהרוג נקי - ויותר טוב ויותר רצוי לפטור אלף חוטאים, מלהרג נקי אחד ביום מן הימים.
I. Rambam, Sefer Hamitzvot
Commentary on Negative Commandment 290
If we do not inflict punishment even when the offense is most probable, the worst that could happen is that someone who is really guilty will be found innocent. But if punishment was given based on estimation and circumstantial evidence, it is possible that someday an innocent person would be executed. And it is preferable and more proper that even a thousand guilty people be set free than to someday execute even one innocent person.
Discussion Question:
How do you put value on a life?
II. Modern Thinkers
[Capital punishment] is . . . the most premeditated of murders, to which no criminal's deed, however calculated . . can be compared . . . For there to be an equivalence, the death penalty would have to punish a criminal who had warned his victim of the date at which he would inflict a horrible death on him and who, from that moment onward, had confined him at mercy for months. Such a monster is not encountered in private life.
--Albert Camus
If he has committed a murder, he must die. In this case, there is no substitute that will satisfy the requirements of legal justice. There is no sameness of kind between death and remaining alive even under the most miserable conditions, and consequently there is no equality between the crime and the retribution unless the criminal is judicially condemned and put to death.
--Immanuel Kant
Discussion Questions:
Does someone ever deserve to be put to death?
What should warrant the death penalty?
(י) מי שנגמר דינו וברח ובא לפני אותו בית דין, אין סותרים את דינו. כל מקום שיעמדו שנים ויאמרו, מעידין אנו באיש פלוני שנגמר דינו בבית דינו שלפלוני, ופלוני ופלוני עדיו, הרי זה יהרג. סנהדרין נוהגת בארץ ובחוצה לארץ. סנהדרין ההורגת אחד בשבוע נקראת חבלנית. רבי אלעזר בן עזריה אומר, אחד לשבעים שנה. רבי טרפון ורבי עקיבא אומרים, אלו היינו בסנהדרין לא נהרג אדם מעולם. רבן שמעון בן גמליאל אומר, אף הן מרבין שופכי דמים בישראל.
(10) If someone whose judgement was final [sentenced to death], and ran away but came back to the same Beit Din, we do not re-evaluate his old judgment. Any time that two witnesses came and say, "We testify that this person had a judgement passed against him in a certain court," so and so were the witnesses, we execute him [the defendant on this testimony]. A Sanhedrin that would execute somebody once in seven years would be considered destructive. Rabbi Elazar Ben Azariah says: "Once in seventy years." Rabbi Tarfon and Rabbi Akiva said: "If we were on the Sanhedrin, nobody would have ever been executed." Rabban Shim'on Ben Gamliel said: "They too would have increased violence in Israel."
משנה מכות א':י'
(י) ...סנהדרין ההורגת אחד בשבוע נקראת חבלנית. רבי אלעזר בן עזריה אומר, אחד לשבעים שנה. רבי טרפון ורבי עקיבא אומרים, אלו היינו בסנהדרין לא נהרג אדם מעולם. רבן שמעון בן גמליאל אומר, אף הן מרבין שופכי דמים בישראל.
III. Mishnah Makkot 1:10
(10) ...A Sanhedrin that would execute somebody once in seven years would be considered destructive. Rabbi Elazar Ben Azariah says: "Once in seventy years." Rabbi Tarfon and Rabbi Akiva said: "If we were on the Sanhedrin, nobody would have ever been executed." Rabban Shim'on Ben Gamliel said: "They too would have increased violence in Israel."
Discussion Questions:
What guidelines should be set up before going through with execution?
To whom is the bold "they" referring?