Capital Punishment

Readings for today: Deuteronomy 16-19

I remember seeing death row for the first time. I was serving as a volunteer chaplain at New Jersey State Prison and I was being given a tour by the head chaplain of the facility. I was not allowed on death row but I was able to see it from the outside. The men housed there had committed horrendous crimes and, as such, were isolated from one another. They were never allowed to mix with each other or the general population. They were given one hour a day outside their cell for exercise. They took their meals by themselves. They basically were running out the clock on their appeal process. The last person to be executed in New Jersey was in 1963 though the death penalty wasn’t officially abolished until 2007, about five years after I finished my chaplaincy.

When I first began serving at NJSP, I was pro-death penalty. I believed some crimes were so horrendous and some people so evil, justice demanded they pay with their lives. I believed it helped the victims and their families find closure. And, perhaps most of all, I believed it was biblical. Passages like the one we read today were some of the key texts I relied on in my own thinking. “But only on the testimony of two or three witnesses may a person be put to death. No one may be put to death on the testimony of one witness. The witnesses must throw the first stones in the execution, then the rest of the community joins in. You have to purge the evil from your community.” (Deuteronomy 17:6-7 MSG) I found that last statement particularly compelling. Purging the evil from the community seemed like a good thing especially when one considered the nature of the crimes that would merit the death penalty.

When I finished my service at NJSP, I was anti-death penalty. Why did my views change? After all, the nature of the crimes these men committed were still horrendous. The trauma they caused still demanded justice. The grief and pain of the victim’s family and friends was still very real and heartbreaking and demanded closure. And the Bible certainly didn’t change. So why my own change of heart? First and foremost, I was challenged to dig deeper into Scripture. Even in the passage cited above, it’s important to pay close attention to the process God lays out when it comes to capital punishment. There must be two or three witnesses which eliminates any reasonable doubt. Furthermore, the witnesses themselves must be so convinced that they are willing to throw the first stone or flip the switch in our case. Not only that but the entire community must be part of carrying out the sentence. It cannot happen behind closed doors or in private or in secret. This stands in sharp contrast to how we carry out the death penalty today. Second, the chaplains I worked with and trusted shared with me how elusive closure could be for the families of victims. Simply killing the person who killed their loved one often didn’t bring any sense of peace and it actually robbed the person of the potential opportunity to extend forgiveness. Third, executing someone who does not believe in Jesus Christ sentences them to an eternity in hell. Add to this all the additional costs of the appeal process (it’s actually cheaper to keep a person in prison for life), the lack of evidence that it acts as a deterrent, and the fact that poverty and race play a disproportionate role in convictions and you can see why my views changed.

God is a God of justice. He will by no means clear the guilty or give the sinner a pass. He gives us the law in order to restrain the evil impulses of the human heart. Evil impulses that result in abuse, violence, and so much pain and suffering. God hates what we do to ourselves and what we do to others. He cannot stand man’s inhumanity to man. This is why He came. This is why He died. This is why He rose again. He breaks the power of sin that enslaves and oppresses and creates the conditions under which we commit our crimes. He breaks the power of death, commuting our own death sentence by dying in our place. Finally, He gives us the gift - not of life in prison - but of eternal life with Him. Praise be to God for His amazing grace!

Readings for tomorrow: Deuteronomy 20-23

Death Penalty

Readings for today: Numbers 33-36

I worked for two years at New Jersey State Prison as a volunteer chaplain. NJSP is where the state of New Jersey sends the worst of the worst. Murderers. Violent criminals. Sex offenders. Gang leaders. Mafia dons. It is also where they used to house death row. I was never allowed into death row but I remember vividly standing outside the door and looking in through the window. It was a sterile environment and the men there were cut off from the general prison population. Most death row inmates are excluded from any kind of educational or employment programming and visitation is extremely limited. They can also spend up to 23 hours each day in their cells which essentially amounts to years of solitary confinement. New Jersey abolished the death penalty in 2007, five years after I left. But from 1690 to 1963, they executed 361 people. 

The death penalty is a thorny subject for Christians. In theory, it does have biblical support drawn mainly from passages like the one we read today in Numbers 35. A careful reading of the passage reveals many fascinating details. Cities of refuge. Premeditated murder vs. accidental death. Avengers of blood. Congregational trials. Evidence. Witnesses. Motives. Methods. It’s a very specific passage that actually places limits on vengeance in a way that would have been striking to other ancient near east cultures. It employs the principle of lex talionis  or “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” Proportional justice. It keeps generational vendettas from forming between families and clans and tribes.

Those who support the contemporary use of the death penalty on biblical grounds need to wrestle with the boundaries this passage sets. Provision must be made for the safety of the murderer while he/she awaits trial. Motive must be carefully discerned and the accuser is the one to carry out the sentence. If there is no premeditation then the congregation is allowed to judge and show mercy by assigning the person to a city of refuge for a certain duration. (Lifetime of the current high priest.) There must be more than one witness to the crime. And you cannot tolerate murder in the land lest it become ritually polluted. 

Obviously, it’s quite the challenge to apply ancient near east law codes in a 21st century context. Layer in the well-documented class issues we have in our legal system - statistically ethnic minorities and the poor are FAR more likely to be convicted and/or serve longer sentences - as well as the frequency with which our justice system convicts the wrong person (DNA evidence has been a game-changer here) and one can see why many would argue we should abolish the death penalty altogether. Furthermore, it seems Jesus accuses all of us being guilty of murder in His words from the Sermon on the Mount, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire.” (Matt. 5:21-22) 

So what do we do? We must carefully and prayerfully consider our position on the death penalty. We must ask if it is just, not in abstraction but in concrete practice. We must make sure the actions we take are just, the process transparent, and if there is even a hint of incompetence or injustice in the way we prosecute then we must forbear. Furthermore, we have to come to grips with the gravity of our actions. Executing another human being is deeply significant. The shedding of blood is not something to take lightly. Unjust killing pollutes the land in which we dwell. Furthermore, to take the life of another human being before they accept Christ as Lord and Savior consigns them to an eternity in hell. All these factors must weigh heavily on us as we wrestle with this issue and think about public policy in our society. 

Readings for tomorrow: Deuteronomy 1-3