SPECIAL COMMENTARY
To Kill, Or Not To Kill
of Illinois, a death-penalty supporter,
n the Philadelphia area, the
ordered a moratorium on carrying out
death penalty issue recently
the death penalty. He did so because
became a lot more real for many
of the large number of cases where
Jews. After more than five years
incompetence and errors in the Chica-
of investigation, prosecutors in Cam-
go justice system had resulted in capi-
den County, N.J., formally charged
tal convictions subsequently reversed.
Rabbi Fred J. Neulander with capital
The decision has lent momentum to a
murder in the 1994 death of
movement for a nationwide
his wife, Carol.
death-penalty moratorium,
Neulander now appears to
a stance supported by many
be the first American rabbi
national Jewish groups.
ever to be tried for murder. If
It must be admitted that
convicted of hiring two men
many Jews are in conflict.
to kill his wife, this former
Our religious tradition says
spiritual leader of a large
that the death penalty is
Cherry Hill, N.J., congrega-
legal punishment, but can
tion actually could face the
be carried-out only under
death penalty.
highly restricted circum-
JO NATHAN S.
But whatever fate awaits
stances. To qualify as a cap-
TOBIN
Rabbi Neulander — who, we
ital crime, murder must be
Special to
must remind ourselves, has
premeditated and there
the J ewish News must be two witnesses or
not been convicted and is
entitled to a presumption of
the equivalent. Halacha,
innocence — arguments over how
Jewish law, is structured to make such
capital punishment has been imple-
sentences extremely rare.
mented have vaulted to the top of the
national agenda. Much-publicized
Mistakes Kill
studies about the high rate of death-
If the death penalty is to survive the
penalty sentences overturned and the
assaults it has been subjected to this year,
use of DNA testing to exonerate those
mistakes such as those highlighted by
already found guilty have raised
Gov. Ryan cannot be tolerated. Corrupt
doubts about whether courts can
courts, such as those that supposedly
inflict death with the certainty our
predominate in Chicago, undermine
consciences require.
faith in any sentence, let alone a sen-
Earlier this year, Gov. George Ryan
tence of death. States where poor crimi-
nal defendants do not have access to
Jonathan S. Tobin, executive editor
competent legal defenders, as many have
of the Jewish Exponent in Philadel-
alleged is the case in death-penalty-crazy
phia, can be reached via e-mail at
Texas, similarly have less credibility
jtobin@jewishexponent.com
when they claim — as GOP presidential
Philadelphia
I
candidate Texas Gov. George W. Bush
has done — that no innocent persons
are ever executed.
The standards that the talmudic
Sanhedrin would have required for
conviction of capital crimes is often
lacking in American courts. Where
there is any reasonable — as opposed
to ideological — doubt about the way
justice is carried out in the United
States, we dare not take a chance of
executing an innocent person.
However, not all the arguments
put forward by death-penalty-mora-
torium advocates are completely
convincing. For example, the study
of death-penalty convictions dis-
cussed in a June .12 front-page arti-
cle in the New York Times was some-
what misleading. The article alleged
that 87 percent of death-penalty
cases were reversed in California
from 1973 to 1995. But for much of
that time, ideological foes of the
death penalty on the California
Supreme Court overturned all capi-
tal sentences. So it is not quite the
scandal one might have supposed.
Yet, the bottom line doesn't really
revolve around reasonable doubt or
DNA. Indeed, advanced scientific evi-
dence makes it more likely, not less,
that we can be sure many death sen-
tences are not errors. This debate is
really about whether we think it right,
or just, for the state to take the life of
a person convicted of murder.
Many of us simply believe such acts
are simply immoral, even in response to
a depraved and premeditated murder. I
respect that view, but cannot share it. A
society that prevents itself from ade-
quately punishing murder is not a just
one. No crime is a greater threat to the
fabric of society than murder.
Colt4 Hard Facts
We must respect the lives of the -vic-
tims, not just the murderers. Ours is
a country where 500,000 murders
were committed between 1973 and
1997. In that time, only 432 mur-
derers were put to death, and then
only after long, drawn-out appeals.
That is not a statistic that shows
America to be 'a nation of indiscrim-
inate executions.
Those who honestly believe Jewish
tradition and morality compel them to
oppose the death penalty under all cir-
cumstances need to answer a few ques-
tions honestly.
• Would you still oppose the death
penalty if a loved one was raped and
murdered?
• How sanguine would you be
about life imprisonment as opposed to
death if your loved one was killed by a
released or escaped killer?
• If murderers of thousands or mil-
lions deserve death, why is a person who
wantonly takes a single life — a murder
which our tradition teaches us is the
same as the death of thousands — more
worthy of mercy than a mass killer?
In the end, the death-penalty ques-
tion must be resolved by our sense of
justice. If we are not prepared to
inflict it — under even the most strin-
gent system of laws and checks against
errors — then I wonder whether we
truly have such a sense at all. O
LETTERS
Holiday Has
Solemnity Factor
This letter is in reference to your artide
("Flag On The Field," Aug. 11, page 17)
dealing with schools handling High
Holy Day scheduling conflicts.
Quoting a statement that appeared
in the July 20 edition of the Plymouth
Observer and was re-quoted in the
Jewish News, Ron Schenck said, "Rosh
HaShana is more like a party holiday,
not like Yom Kippur."
If Ron could find fewer than 10 min-
utes to attend an Orthodox, Conserva-
tive or Reform Rosh HaShana service,
or even just read the liturgy in the
prayer book, he might learn that Rosh
HaShana, the start of the 10 days of
repentance that lead to Yom Kippur, is a
very solemn and soul-searching time for
observant Jews — not a party-time holi-
day as celebrated at the end of the Gre-
gorian calendar year.
Remarks such as Ron's not only
make a mockery of the Jewish reli-
gion, but also of his brethren who
wish time to observe holy days.
Rosh HaShana is a holy day, not a
party holiday.
Sol Mandelbaum
Oak Park
Historical Fact
Is Corrected
Under the date 1906, you cite the Hon-
orable Oscar Strauss as the first Jewish
member of a presidential cabinet ("The
Year That Was," June 30, page 97).
The first Jewish member of a presi-
dential cabinet was Senator Judah P.
Benjamin of Louisiana. He was the
attorney general in the first cabinet of
the Confederate States of America
under its president, Jefferson Davis.
The Honorable Judah P. Benjamin
went on to become secretary of war
and then, in 1862, secretary of state
for the Confederate States. Despite
being the subject of considerable anti-
semitic vituperation by northern fire-
brands, he was well respected in the
South, where a substantial Jewish
community prospered.
The Honorable Judah P. Benjamin
holds the distinction of being the first
Jewish member of the U.S. Senate,
having been elected from Louisiana in
1853. This is all the more interesting
since at that time, senators were not
elected by popular vote, but rather by
their state legislatures.
John D. Dingell III
Lincoln Park
The Only Game
In Town?
We were amazed by an article that
appeared two weeks ago ("Kosher
Losses," Aug. 4, page 7) about kosher
food supervision in the Detroit area
quoting others several times that this
was the exclusive province of the
Council of Orthodox Rabbis (Vaad
Harabonim). It is common knowledge
LETTERS on page 40
la
8/18
2000
39