The inhumanity of a flawed system

I have already written a about the death penalty in its relation to Judaism, but I feel the need to specifically address a certain point about the death penalty that many people use to try and justify such a brutal and inhumane system of judgment in this country. The death penalty in this country according to its supporters provides a so called “deterrent” which supposedly prevents even more people from killing others. This could not be further from the truth.

When someone is about to commit murder the punishment is in almost all cases completely outside of their minds at the time. People commit murders mainly in the heat of passion, under the sway of alcohol or drugs, or because they are mentally ill, giving little or no thought to the potential penalty of their actions. The few murderers who plan their crimes in advance for intend and expect to avoid punishment altogether by not getting caught. If they thought they would get caught then they would most likely not commit the crime in the first place. Therefore, the punishment has no bearing on people when they are committing the crime and overall probably deters very few if any murderers. The few if any murderers that may be deterred by the death penalty are not worth the innocent people that this far from flawless system kills. If a death penalty was ever to be active, it would be have to be majorly reformed to make sure that there is not even a 0.001% chance someone innocent could die. The Judaic system of capital punishment which required witnesses to actually view the crime when it occurred and warn the guilty party about the consequences is a perfect system which does not judge based on circumstantial evidence. As I wrote before:

A court which executed one man in seven years would be labeled a ‘destructive court’ (Makkot 7a), because it was understood, how serious of a task executing people was. On the rare occurrences that a Jewish court would actually administer a sentence of the death penalty, the court would even fast that day (Moed Katan 14b).

Therefore, I will agree with the great Rabbi, Maimonides, who wrote: "It is better and more satisfactory to acquit a thousand guilty persons than to put a single innocent one to death."

Oh and here is some recent news on the innocence of people trapped in this system:

Dwayne Allen Dail served 18 years in North Carolina prisons for a crime he always said he didn’t commit. On Tuesday, August 28, he was released from state custody after DNA testing proved that he was telling the truth all along. Dail’s attorneys at the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence and county prosecutors jointly requested that a state judge dismiss the conviction and charges, and the judge pronounced Dail free in a hearing Tuesday morning. He is the 207th person nationwide exonerated through DNA testing.

"The science has proved that Mr. Dail is innocent," District Attorney Branny Vickory told reporters before Tuesday’s hearing. "He didn't do it. The evidence is so overwhelmingly strong, there's no need to wait." (SOURCE)