Capital Punishment (part 2)
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What crimes are worthy of the death penalty?
What crimes are worthy of the death penalty?
For those who are pro death penalty the question becomes are there any crimes other than murder that are worthy of the capital punishment?
Christopher Wright points out a significant feature of Old Testament law: "No property offense in normal legal procedure was punishable by death."' That is, people could not be put to death for stealing things, but some kind of monetary retribution had to be made instead. This seems to be a wise principle that should prevent the death penalty from even being considered for crimes involving only property.
Some might say, “what about verse in the Mosaic covenant that say the penalty was punishment by death.
Adultery (for a married woman and her lover)
10 ‘If there is a man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, one who commits adultery with his friend’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
Bestiality
15 ‘If there is a man who lies with an animal, he shall surely be put to death; you shall also kill the animal.
Blasphemy
16 ‘Moreover, the one who blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall certainly stone him. The alien as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.
Child Sacrifice
1 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “You shall also say to the sons of Israel: ‘Any man from the sons of Israel or from the aliens sojourning in Israel who gives any of his offspring to Molech, shall surely be put to death; the people of the land shall stone him with stones. 3 ‘I will also set My face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given some of his offspring to Molech, so as to defile My sanctuary and to profane My holy name.
False Testimony in Capital Cases
16 “If a malicious witness rises up against a man to accuse him of wrongdoing, 17 then both the men who have the dispute shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days. 18 “The judges shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is a false witness and he has accused his brother falsely, 19 then you shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you.
False Prophecy
20 ‘But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’
Proselytizing and Promoting Other Religions
7 of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near you or far from you, from one end of the earth to the other end), 8 you shall not yield to him or listen to him; and your eye shall not pity him, nor shall you spare or conceal him. 9 “But you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. 10 “So you shall stone him to death because he has sought to seduce you from the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 11 “Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such a wicked thing among you. 12 “If you hear in one of your cities, which the Lord your God is giving you to live in, anyone saying that
Male Homosexual Relations
13 ‘If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltiness is upon them.
Idolatry, Actual or Virtual
2 “You shall also say to the sons of Israel: ‘Any man from the sons of Israel or from the aliens sojourning in Israel who gives any of his offspring to Molech, shall surely be put to death; the people of the land shall stone him with stones.
Incestuous Relations
11 ‘If there is a man who lies with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness; both of them shall surely be put to death, their bloodguiltiness is upon them. 12 ‘If there is a man who lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death; they have committed incest, their bloodguiltiness is upon them. 13 ‘If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltiness is upon them. 14 ‘If there is a man who marries a woman and her mother, it is immorality; both he and they shall be burned with fire, so that there will be no immorality in your midst.
Insubordination to supreme authority
12 “The man who acts presumptuously by not listening to the priest who stands there to serve the Lord your God, nor to the judge, that man shall die; thus you shall purge the evil from Israel.
Lying about one's virginity upon marrying a spouse
13 “If any man takes a wife and goes in to her and then turns against her, 14 and charges her with shameful deeds and publicly defames her, and says, ‘I took this woman, but when I came near her, I did not find her a virgin,’ 15 then the girl’s father and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of the girl’s virginity to the elders of the city at the gate. 16 “The girl’s father shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man for a wife, but he turned against her; 17 and behold, he has charged her with shameful deeds, saying, “I did not find your daughter a virgin.” But this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread the garment before the elders of the city. 18 “So the elders of that city shall take the man and chastise him, 19 and they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give it to the girl’s father, because he publicly defamed a virgin of Israel. And she shall remain his wife; he cannot divorce her all his days. 20 “But if this charge is true, that the girl was not found a virgin, 21 then they shall bring out the girl to the doorway of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death because she has committed an act of folly in Israel by playing the harlot in her father’s house; thus you shall purge the evil from among you.
Kidnapping
16 “He who kidnaps a man, whether he sells him or he is found in his possession, shall surely be put to death.
Licentiousness of a Priest's Daughter
9 ‘Also the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by harlotry, she profanes her father; she shall be burned with fire.
Murder
12 “He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death.
Rape Committed against a Betrothed Woman
25 “But if in the field the man finds the girl who is engaged, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lies with her shall die. 26 “But you shall do nothing to the girl; there is no sin in the girl worthy of death, for just as a man rises against his neighbor and murders him, so is this case. 27 “When he found her in the field, the engaged girl cried out, but there was no one to save her.
Rebelling against Parental Authority
15 “He who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.
17 “He who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.
18 “If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or his mother, and when they chastise him, he will not even listen to them, 19 then his father and mother shall seize him, and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gateway of his hometown. 20 “They shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey us, he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ 21 “Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death; so you shall remove the evil from your midst, and all Israel will hear of it and fear.
Sabbath-Breaking
14 ‘Therefore you are to observe the sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people.
Touching Mount Sinai while God was giving Moses the Ten Commandments
13 ‘No hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot through; whether beast or man, he shall not live.’ When the ram’s horn sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain.”
Witchcraft, divination, necromancy, sorcery, etc.
27 ‘Now a man or a woman who is a medium or a spiritist shall surely be put to death. They shall be stoned with stones, their bloodguiltiness is upon them.’ ”
Concerning these crimes and penalties Wayne Grudem says, “Those laws were intended only for the people of Israel at that particular time in history. Many of those laws reflected the unique status of Israel as a people for God's own possession who were required to worship him and not to allow any hint of allegiance to other gods. There is no suggestion in the rest of the Bible that those particular uses of the death penalty in the Mosaic covenant should ever be applied by civil governments today, in the age of the new covenant.”
Here is an example of this.
A woman of brought to Jesus to be stoned because she was caught in adultery. Under the Mosaic Covenant this was a proper consequence of her actions.
10 ‘If there is a man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, one who commits adultery with his friend’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
But notice Jesus’ response.
3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court, 4 they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. 5 “Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?” 6 They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground. 7 But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9 When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court. 10 Straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.”
Grudem concludes this, God gives to civil government the right and the responsibility to carryout capital punishment for certain crimes, at least for the crime of murder (which is specified in Gen. 9:6). Whether there should be other crimes subject to capital punishment is a question that each government in each society must decide through its normal political and governmental decision-making process.”
According to deathpenaltyinfo.com in a article entitled “Death Penalty for Offenses Other Than Murde.” It states, “The death penalty in the United States is used almost exclusively for the crime of murder. Although state and federal statutes contain various capital crimes other than those involving the death of the victim, only two people were on death row for a non-murder offense (Patrick Kennedy and Richard Davis in Louisiana) when the U.S. Supreme Court addressed this issue in 2008. No one has been executed for such a crime since the death penalty was re-instated in 1976.”
The article goes on to say, “Although no one is on death row for the following crimes, capital offenses exist in state law for various other crimes:”
Treason, betraying one's country, (Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois*, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Washington*)
Aggravated kidnapping (Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Missouri, Montana)
Drug trafficking (Florida, Missouri)
Aircraft hijacking (Georgia, Missouri)
Placing a bomb near a bus terminal (Missouri)
Espionage aka Spying (New Mexico*)
Aggravated assault by incarcerated, persistent felons, or murderers (Montana)
*These states abolished the death penalty after Kennedy v. Louisiana was decided.
Federal capital statutes for non-murder crimes (no one on death row for such offenses)
Espionage (18 U.S.C. 794)
Treason (18 U.S.C. 2381)
Trafficking in large quantities of drugs (18 U.S.C. 3591(b)
Attempting, authorizing or advising the killing of any officer, juror, or witness in cases involving a Continuing Criminal Enterprise, regardless of whether such killing actually occurs (18 U.S.C. 3591(b)(2))
Objections to Capital Punishment
Genesis 9:5-6 is a Proverb
Genesis 9:5-6 is a Proverb
5 “Surely I will require your lifeblood; from every beast I will require it. And from every man, from every man’s brother I will require the life of man. 6 “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man.
David Gushee and Glen Stassen say, "As it stands in Genesis, it does not command the death penalty but gives wise advice based on the likely consequence of your action: if you kill someone, you will end up being killed.”
Some see the text in Genesis as a Proverb and not a command.
Matthew 5:38-39 prohibits Capital Punishment
Matthew 5:38-39 prohibits Capital Punishment
38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 “But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.
I as we have stated in a previous lesson, turning the other cheek is our personal responsibility not the government responsibility.
Does the Death Penalty a deterrent in Murders?
There are many article that state that most murders are not premeditated and because of that the death penalty has not effect on decreasing the numbers of murders.
David Muhlhausen, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, argues that is a logical fallacy and reports that in one study done in 2009, researchers found that adopting state laws making defendants in child murder cases subject to the death penalty resulted in an almost 20 percent reduction in rates of these crimes.
I believe that the reason the death penalty is not an effective as it should be is because of hoe is instrumented.
The process takes sometime decades and because the lack of swiftness offenders don’t take the punishment for the crime into consideration.
Ecclesiastes 8:11 says this.
11 Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil.
Although, there might be an argument for the effectiveness of Capital Punishment because of the slowness of the punishment. There is one guarantee that came be made. The one who is convicted and suffers the consequences of the death penalty will no long be able to offend again.
The ACLU’s opposition to capital punishment incorporates the following fundamental concerns:
The ACLU’s opposition to capital punishment incorporates the following fundamental concerns:
The death penalty system in the US is applied in an unfair and unjust manner against people, largely dependent on how much money they have, the skill of their attorneys, race of the victim and where the crime took place.
The death penalty is a waste of taxpayer funds and has no public safety benefit. The vast majority of law enforcement professionals surveyed agree that capital punishment does not deter violent crime; a survey of police chiefs nationwide found they rank the death penalty lowest among ways to reduce violent crime. They ranked increasing the number of police officers, reducing drug abuse, and creating a better economy with more jobs higher than the death penalty as the best ways to reduce violence. The FBI has found the states with the death penalty have the highest murder rates.
Innocent people are too often sentenced to death. Since 1973, over 156 people have been released from death rows in 26 states because of innocence. Nationally, at least one person is exonerated for every 10 that are executed.