Death Penalty: An antiquated, ineffective and immoral “justice”

“A Sanhedrin that puts a man to death once in seven years is called a murderous one. Rabbi Eliezer ben Azariah said, ‘Or even once in 70 years.’ Rabbi Tarfon and Rabbi Akiba said, ‘If we had been in the Sanhedrin, no death sentence would ever have been passed” -Mishnah Makkot 1:10

I have never been for the death penalty. As children we’re taught that an eye for an eye makes the world go blind. Just because you are wronged, doesn’t justify you doing wrong in return. So the idea of taking vengeance, which is what is amounts to, just seemed foreign and against what we were taught.

Growing up I had these beliefs tested by family and friends and strangers like. “Well if someone killed your mother or your wife, wouldn’t you like to see them dead?” It’s the one thing everyone always throws in your face when they find you are against the death penalty. I think I would be lying if I said, at least initially, that I wouldn’t want to see them meet an untimely end for taking a loved one from me. But that is not justification for it.

There’s a reason the courts don’t just go to a grieving person and ask what they think should happen. In the heat of the moment when the wound is so fresh you clearly wouldn’t be able to think clearly and objectively (Not saying that you could be blamed). So the jury gets to mete out the punishment. But I still don’t feel that the Death Penalty should be on the table, outside of extraordinary cases. The once in a 70 year cases.

There is a man in Alabama named Kenneth Eugene Smith. He was convicted of the murder of Elizabeth Sennett in March of 1988. He was scheduled to be executed via Lethal Injection by was stopped due to complications with the IV. Now they are planning in just a few short days to try again but this time using Nitrogen Hypoxia as the method of execution.

How this is allowed is beyond me as the constitution is supposed to protect citizens, even those who commit crimes, from being administered cruel and unusual punishments. As someone with COPD and breathing troubles, I have been Hypoxic. It is a frightening experience. It is not in any way shape or form a merciful thing to put upon someone.

I pray that there is a stay, and perhaps no further attempts to be made on executing Kenneth Smith. That is not to say he is innocent, or he is undeserving of punishment and Justice. But the state does not have the right to kill its citizens. Furthermore the biggest reason we’re given as to why it should be allowed is it is a deterrent. But if history going back to the beginning of man has shown us, in the millennia we’ve wandered the face of this earth, it has never and will never fully deter anyone from committing the act of murder.

So if that’s the case, then why do we still do it? I am not an expert, nor someone who purports to be, I am just an average person. So perhaps I am not the one to argue against it, but someone has to. How long will we abide this? I pray not for long