Podcast: Shlomo Brody on Capital Punishment and the Jewish Tradition

By Tikvah Podcast at Mosaic, Shlomo Brody

Earlier this month, the man who killed eleven Jews in Pittsburgh in 2018 was sentenced to death. A rabbi and ethicist joins us to think about Jewish views of capital punishment.

Podcast: Shlomo Brody

On October 27, 2018, a gunman burst into the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, armed with a Colt AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and three Glock .357 semi-automatic pistols. He executed eleven Jews at prayer. When police arrived, they shot the gunman multiple times, but he survived and was taken into custody. Earlier this month, he was sentenced to death by lethal injection.

How does Judaism look upon capital punishment? Does this killer still bear the image and likeness of God and possess a dignity that is irreducible, such that he could be punished but should not be killed? Or did he surrender that moral standing by the act of murder? Do resources from within the Jewish tradition suggest that capital punishment has a deterrent effect on other potential criminals?

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