“US death row study: 4% of defendants sentenced to die are innocent”
Ed Pilkington
theguardian.com.
The Guardian is hardly my favorite paper, but this is an article worth contemplating.
We must come to grips with the fact that the modern standard of proof for capital crimes is far lower than what Torah intended. That being the case, can any Jew in good conscience support the death penalty as it stands?
The idea of a just punishment for a crime is spot on, and the idea of suffering a killer to live sends a knife in my guts. But if Torah teaches that to save a single life is to safe the world entire, how do we address the possibility of even one innocent person being put to death?
These are not rhetorical questions: I am genuinely interested in hearing your thoughts, particularly those based in Halachah.
Hebrew Hutong 
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