As noted in my post on Ineffective Biblical arguments against capital punishment, I think that capital punishment (CP) is a completely Biblical proposition if properly applied. Having said that, I do have some concerns about how it is currently administered in the U.S. If I were to argue against it, here is what I would focus on.
- Just because the Bible permits capital punishment doesn’t mean we have to use it.
- Some people on death row have been found not guilty.
- The Bible requires that accused criminals be justly convicted, and our system doesn’t take perjury very seriously.
Just because the Bible permits capital punishment doesn’t mean we have to use it. This isn’t a perfect argument, but it is serviceable and I think it could be used fairly well in a debate. The reasoning would be that if capital punishment were put to a vote a Christian could, in good conscience, vote against the death penalty. This doesn’t argue against CP, but it says you wouldn’t have to argue for it.
Some people on death row have been found not guilty – I think these numbers are overstated, because the convictions that have been overturned were based on technicalities and not on the innocence of the accused. And they also point to the fact that the system works, at least sometimes: The convictions were overturned before the death penalty was carried out. Had they been sentenced to life in prison they might still be in jail.
But the issues with the Houston DNA lab, for example, do point to problems in the system.
The Bible requires that accused criminals be justly convicted, and our system doesn’t take perjury very seriously. God loves justice. Here’s just one of many verses one could point to: Micah 6:8 He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Keep in mind that when I say He loves justice that doesn’t just mean he loves it when the innocent aren’t punished. He also loves it when the guilty are held accountable. This can help rehabilitate the criminal, protect others from the criminal and deter others from becoming criminals.)
The Bible required two or more witnesses for the death penalty: Numbers 35:30 Anyone who kills a person is to be put to death as a murderer only on the testimony of witnesses. But no one is to be put to death on the testimony of only one witness.
Then those witnesses were required to put him to death: Deuteronomy 17:7 The hands of the witnesses must be the first in putting him to death, and then the hands of all the people. You must purge the evil from among you.
It also required justice for the poor, so they must have adequate legal counsel: Exodus 23:6 “Do not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits.
The U.S. legal system goes beyond what the Bible requires in some areas, such as Miranda rights and DNA evidence. But it falls short in a crucial area: The integrity of witnesses. According to the Bible, perjury was punishable by death. Yet perjury doesn’t appear to be taken seriously in our country (and I’m not just talking about the Bill Clinton thing, though that didn’t help matters).
I was on a jury a few years back in Conroe, Texas (Population: Several). A man was accused of fondling a 16 yr. old boy. The boy’s testimony was pretty compelling, but there were some holes in the story.
The main problem was that witnesses on both sides were obviously lying over and over. (Here’s some free legal advice: If you are ever on trial and decide to invent an alibi witness who is allegedly an old buddy, and who no one will be able to locate via phone or other records, then don’t change his last name part way through your testimony. It looks a little suspicious.) It appeared that some type of incident had occurred, but we certainly didn’t have enough evidence to find him guilty. Yet no one seemed to care about the perjury!
Now contrast our current system with the Biblical model for perjury:
Deuteronomy 19:16-21 If a malicious witness takes the stand to accuse a man of a crime, the two men involved in the dispute must stand in the presence of the Lord before the priests and the judges who are in office at the time. The judges must make a thorough investigation, and if the witness proves to be a liar, giving false testimony against his brother, then do to him as he intended to do to his brother. You must purge the evil from among you. The rest of the people will hear of this and be afraid, and never again will such an evil thing be done among you. Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
Did you catch that? If you lied at a trial you were putting yourself at risk for the same punishment as the accused. Couple that with the fact that two witnesses were required to convict someone of murder and you have a pretty reliable system in place. Well, at least God thought so (sorry for name-dropping!).
Note that one drawback of these arguments is that they are easier to label as Israelite-specific than the universal commands of Genesis 9:5-6: And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.
But I don’t think the answer is to end capital punishment, because that same reasoning could lead us to suspend all punishments. Many murderers are guilty beyond dispute (“Free Tookie” and Karla Faye Tucker come to mind), so there is no chance we’re executing an innocent person there. The answer is to tighten up on perjury. People need to know that lying under oath has serious consequences.
I am still in favor of capital punishment because I think the controls in place are adequate and in some ways more stringent than the Biblical model, but if I had to argue against it I would play the “soft on perjury” card all day long.
