Ohioans to Stop Executions & RAC Ohio

Maimonides, Sefer ha-Mitzvot (Book of the Commandments): Comment on Negative Commandment 290
It is better and more satisfactory to acquit a thousand guilty persons than to put a single innocent one to death.

Since the death penalty was reinstated in Ohio, for every five executions in our state, one person has been exonerated. Ohio death row exonerees spent an average of more than 20 years between conviction and exoneration, and combined, they served almost 216 years incarcerated for crimes they did not commit. -Ohioans to Stop Executions

משנה סנהדרין ד׳:ה׳

(ה) הוו יודעין שלא כדיני ממונות דיני נפשות. דיני ממונות, אדם נותן ממון ומתכפר לו. דיני נפשות, דמו ודם זרעיותיו תלוין בו עד סוף העולם, שכן מצינו בקין שהרג את אחיו, שנאמר (בראשית ד, י) דמי אחיך צעקים, אינו אומר דם אחיך אלא דמי אחיך, דמו ודם זרעיותיו. דבר אחר, דמי אחיך, שהיה דמו משלך על העצים ועל האבנים.

לפיכך נברא אדם יחידי, ללמדך, שכל המאבד נפש אחת, מעלה עליו הכתוב כאלו אבד עולם מלא. וכל המקים נפש אחת , מעלה עליו הכתוב כאלו קים עולם מלא.

Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5

(5) Know that capital cases are not like monetary ones. In monetary cases, (a false witness) can return the money and achieve atonement. But in capital cases, his blood and the blood of all his future offspring hang upon you until the end of time. For thus we find in regard to Cain, who killed his brother, "The bloods of your brother scream out!" - the verse does not say blood of your brother, but bloods of your brother, because it was his blood and also the blood of his future offspring (screaming out)!

It was for this reason that man was first created as one person (viz. Adam), to teach you that anyone who destroys a life is considered by Scripture to have destroyed an entire world; any any who saves a life is as if he saved an entire world."

Since race plays a central role in the criminal justice system, it is not surprising that it is also central to the problem of wrongful convictions. According to a report by the National Registry of Exonerations (NRE), most of the exonerations in the United States in the past 28 years have been of black defendants. Black people convicted of murder are 50 percent more likely to be innocent than white people convicted of murder and black people are more likely to be wrongly convicted of murder when the victim was white. These findings are consistent with Ohio’s experience. While people of color make up less than 15% of Ohio’s population, they make up 56% of Ohio’s death row, 33% of those executed, and 72% of those exonerated. - Ohioans to Stop Executions

The death penalty in America symbolizes whom we fear and do not fear; whom we care about and whose lives are not valid. -Bryan Stevenson

Masorti Movement Responsa
The Mishnah allows capital punishment for a number of very specific crimes (Mishnah Sanhedrin 7:4). Only the Sanhedrin, or high court of Jewish law, may judge capital cases, and they stopped doing so around the year 30 C.E. (Sanhedrin 41a and parallels). Nonetheless, the sages of the Talmud continued to discuss capital punishment and to oppose it. Indeed, they added so many conditions that it would be almost impossible to execute a person.

CCAR Resolution, 1979
Both in concept and practice, Jewish tradition found capital punishment repugnant, despite Biblical sanctions for it. For the past 2,000 years, with the rarest of exceptions, Jewish courts have refused to punish criminals by depriving them of their lives.

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.

Mishnah Makkot 1:10

(10) A Sanhedrin that would execute somebody once every seven years is a bloody court. Rabbi Elazar Ben Azariah says: "Once every 70 years." Rabbi Tarfon and Rabbi 'Akiva said: "If we were on the Sanhedrin we would never have killed anyone!" Rabban Shim'on Ben Gamliel said: "They would have increased violence in Israel."

Severity of the crime does not determine who gets a death sentence. Access to adequate defense counsel, the county where the crime was committed, and the county prosecutor’s personal views and approach to the death penalty are the biggest factors in determining whether or not someone receives a death sentence. Just five counties in Ohio – Cuyahoga, Franklin, Hamilton, Lucas, and Summit are responsible for 68% of Ohio death cases. - Ohioans to Stop Executions

“Capital punishment for murder represents the basic ethical principle that each life is valuable. Absent extraordinary circumstances, there is no right to take another person’s life. Executing the offender will not bring back the lost life, but it will reestablish the basic principle that intentional killing is wrong. It will also serve the fundamental practical purpose of preventing blood feuds.” - Judaism and Criminal Justice, Laurie Levinson, Jewish Ethics and Morality, Crane and Dorff, eds

בראשית ט׳:ו׳

(ו) שֹׁפֵךְ֙ דַּ֣ם הָֽאָדָ֔ם בָּֽאָדָ֖ם דָּמ֣וֹ יִשָּׁפֵ֑ךְ כִּ֚י בְּצֶ֣לֶם אֱלֹהִ֔ים עָשָׂ֖ה אֶת־הָאָדָֽם׃

Genesis 9:6

(6) Whoever sheds the blood of man, By man shall his blood be shed; For in His image Did God make man.

There is no evidence that having a death penalty in place deters violent crime. Indeed, the FBI Uniform Crime Report has repeatedly showed that the South, which accounts for over 80% of executions, has the highest murder rate. - Ohioans to Stop Executions

סנהדרין ח׳ ב:ד׳

והאי תנא הוא דתניא ושאר כל חייבי מיתות שבתורה אין ממיתין אותם אלא בעדה ועדים והתראה ועד שיודיעוהו שהוא חייב מיתה בבית דין ר' יהודה אומר עד שיודיעוהו באיזה מיתה הוא נהרג

Sanhedrin 8b:4

Those who are liable for the various death penalties stated in the Torah, the court executes them only when the following elements are present: The congregation, represented by the court of 23 judges; and 2 witnesses; and forewarning just before the defendant commits the transgression. And the court does not execute him unless the witnesses had informed the defendant that he is liable to receive the death penalty from the court. Rabbi Yehuda says: The defendant is not executed unless the witnesses had informed the defendant by which form of the death penalty he is to be killed.

“The death penalty is not about whether people deserve to die for the crimes they commit. The real question of capital punishment in this country is, Do we deserve to kill?” - Bryan Stevenson

“In Germany, there is no death penalty. “We can’t be trusted to kill people after what happened in World War II,” a German woman once told me. In America, the states that recorded the highest number of lynchings, among them the former Confederate States of America, all currently have the death penalty.”
― Isabel Wilkerson, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

Added by: Karen Bodney-Halasz

Unetanah Tokef
As a shepherd herds his flock,
Causing his sheep to pass beneath his staff,
So do You cause to pass, count, and record,
Visiting the souls of all living,
Decreeing the length of their days,
Inscribing their judgment.
On Rosh Hashanah it is written,
And on Yom Kippur it is sealed.
How many shall pass away and how many shall be born,
Who shall live and who shall die,
Who shall reach the end of his days and who shall not...
But repentance, prayer and righteousness avert the severe decree.
For Your praise is in accordance with Your name. You are difficult to anger and easy to appease. For You do not desire the death of the condemned, but that he turn from his path and live.
Until the day of his death You wait for him. Should he turn, You will receive him at once. In truth You are their Creator and You understand their inclination, for they are but flesh and blood.