This is going to be completely outside of my normal purview. It will be written entirely out of my head with (probably) no citations or outside truth to muddy up my thinking.
You are correct, I’m fired up. It’s a topic that is important to me and that I have spent more than a little time codifying my position. Some of it may surprise you, but it is 100% me. The tipping point was an excellent article from my friend 
First: I am adamantly opposed to the death penalty. Those of you looking for affirmation might be well advised to save your time and move on to another article.
Second: This is written from MY perspective. That would be Judeo-Christian upbringing in the United States of America. 15 years as a practicing Buddhist will also be reflected.
Let me be perfectly clear. Society, any society, has a right/responsibility to legislate and follow any doctrine that the society sees fit. That includes killing it’s citizens for various and sundry reasons. The fact that we have been doing so for millena and it still doesn’t do anything to prevent the killing of citizens by the government or other civilians is just an inconvenient truth.
The man Jesus Christ was killed by the Roman backed government of Israel for sedition. That would be speaking out or acting out against said Roman backed government. He was not unique in that way. A few years after his execution the Romans crucified 2000 per day for a period of time. The crosses lined the main road into Jerusalem, providing quite a spectacle.
The ‘Great’ religions of the world all have some things in common. Not the least of these are immutable rules given by whichever deity to provide clarity and direction to the masses.
One that is common to all is “Do Not Kill”. You can look it up.
In the case of Christianity and Judaism it was important enough for God to write it in his own hand on a tablet of stone. That seems to me to be fairly direct and unambiguous.
The ‘Enlightened One’ gave Buddhism 4 rules. Do Not Kill was number one on the list.
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth is the most common reason given for execution and killing. It is interpreted as “You kill someone, we kill you.” Unless of course, the someone you kill is on the ‘prescribed for killing’ list, in which case we will reward you.
Did you even realize that “An eye for an eye” is a relatively obscure and specific punishment from the Talmud for a specific action? That being “If two men are fighting and they inadvertently damage a pregnant woman and the baby has damage as a result THEN it shall be punished by taking an eye from each fighter, or a tooth from each fighter or whatever is damaged on the baby.” Please note that it is specific to a pregnant woman and, in fact, has no regard for the woman. Only for the unborn child.
None of the above has really any bearing on why I am so opposed to the death penalty. My opposition is really based on administration of the code. It is NEVER administered fairly. In this country it is well known that the whiter you are and the more money you have the less chance you have of being executed.
Think of that. Really mundane factors are the deciding factors when it comes to the death penalty. Not the crime itself, not the severity/intensity of the crime, but the color of your skin and the amount of money you can pour into your defense.
I would submit that humans can NEVER administer the death penalty fairly. The only logical way would be “If you kill someone you must die” but we all know that is not the case.
According to all reports (well, the only report we have) there was no asterisk on that stone tablet to provide for excuses or justification for killing another. Simply a prohibition. The fact is that we, as a race, can’t seem to follow that simple missive. Legally or illegally the slaughter goes on. In my opinion the legalization of killing for revenge not only does not deter the process, it encourages it. “This guy has a killing coming. What difference does it make if it’s me or the government? I might as well save some tax dollars.”
All the words in this post are mine. For better or worse.
The photograph is properly sourced and licsensed. The text breaks are open source.
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