Governor Pat Quinn of Illinois has a tough decision to make: whether or not to sign into law a repeal of his state's death penalty. [Read our letter to the Governor]. As Rabbi David Saperstein wrote in his letter to Governor Quinn: "It is clear that the application of the death penalty has, for far too long, been unfair; the racial and class disparities among those sentenced to death as compared to those who receive life imprisonment are stark."Coverage of the Governor's decision has been widespread, with editorials flying: note the Chicago Sun-Times' editorial, as well as others like Judge H. Lee Sarokin, who argues that the death penalty is unfair, cruel and unhelpful.
Other editorials you'd like to share? Leave them in the comments!
The Religious Action Center and Reform Judaism as a Movement more broadly has long worked on the death penalty and sought its abolition (the first anti-Death Penalty resolutions were passed in 1959). Our background resources on the death penalty are a great place to start to see the issue through a Jewish lens. Of course, biblical law mandates the death penalty for all sorts of offenses - but rabbinic interpretations have since abolished Jewish and halachic support for the measure.
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