Where does the Jewish community stand on capital punishment?
Attorneys Michael Millman and Gary Sirbu posed that question recenty at Peninsula Temple Sholom in Burlingame during a talk on the death penalty. Both Sirbu, of Oakland, and Millman, the president of the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, were up-front with their stance on capital punishment.
“We oppose the death penalty, as do the American Reform and Conservative movements,” Millman told the audience of 20. “But we don’t expect you to.”
Sirbu added that they were not “biblical scholars, but lawyers who have done a little research.” He proceeded to explain that the phrase “put to death” appears in the Torah 44 times.
“For example,” he said, “at Exodus 21:12-17, we find the following: ‘When a man schemes against another and kills him treacherously, you shall take him from My very altar to be put to death.'”
Other offenses drawing the death penalty include striking or insulting one’s mother or father.
The Torah, and the ensuing interpretation by rabbis in the Sanhedrin, the ancient higher courts of law, express “great concern about the execution of the innocent,” according to Sirbu.
“In the Torah, two or more witnesses must be present when the crime is about to occur. The Sanhedrin adds that they must have specifically warned the accused that he or she is about to commit a capital crime,” he said.
“We have reached the point,” Sirbu added, “where the Torah commands capital punishment but the rabbis forbid it.”
In the United States, support for the death penalty has declined from 76 percent in favor in 1995 to 63 percent in 2000.
“A decline of 13 percentage points in a five-year period is significant,” said Millman, who explained why Americans are questioning the system.
First, in 1997 the American Bar Association, concerned with executing innocents, called for a moratorium on the death penalty. Then in a national study in 1998, some 83 prisoners who were to be executed had their cases reviewed and were found innocent.
“Defense lawyers were asleep or drunk during trial, prosecutors were withholding evidence, and lab work was sloppy,” Millman said.
In January of last year, Gov. George Ryan of Illinois declared a moratorium on the death penalty. A 1998 study had found that 13 people on death row in Illinois were innocent.
“Many people feel like something is wrong with this system,” Millman added. “People from Pat Robertson to Roselyn Carter are calling for a moratorium so that we can stop and examine this further.”
Europe and other Western democracies have abolished the death penalty, leaving the United States, along with such countries as Iraq, Iran and China, supporting the death penalty.
Of the 38 U.S. states that impose the death penalty, California has the largest number of people on death row: Approximately 40 people are sent to death row in the state every year, the speakers said.
Those attending the morning discussion expressed many concerns, both pro and con, about capital punishment.
“Some people say, ‘I don’t want my tax dollars going to keep a criminal in prison.’ Some things are worse than the death penalty,” said Faye Hirschberg, one of the audience members.
Millman agreed, but added that because of the long and expensive trial-and-appeal process, a death sentence costs taxpayers far more than a life sentence.
Others wondered if the death penalty is a deterrent to violent crime. “Without the death penalty, are we opening the door to mass murder?” asked Len Sarkon.
Sirbu said there is no statistical difference in murder rates between states with or without the death penalty.
“The issue comes down to why are we doing this? Especially when we have LWP [life without parole],” said Sirbu. “When people are assured of LWP, then support for the dea