Welcome to the Judaism community on Codidact!
Will you help us build our community of learners? Drop into our study hall, ask questions, help others with answers to their questions, share a d'var torah if you're so inclined, invite your friends, and join us in building this community together. Not an ask-the-rabbi service, just people at all levels learning together.
Comments on Sentencing a defendant to death
Post
Sentencing a defendant to death
Let's say a Jew is serving on a jury that is deciding the sentence for someone (even more powerfully, a Jew) convicted (under US law) of a capital offense. The judge instructs the jury that the two possible sentences are death or a protracted incarceration.
Can a Jew serve on such a jury? If the Jew believes that only a beit din can exact a death penalty then he will vote against the penalty even if the laws of the US (dina demalchuta dina) indicate that the penalty is called for.
Can a Jew be in favor of a secular law which doesn't follow the process of the Jewish legal system? Can he be against it on a religious level and still be following the rules of applying secular law?
1 comment thread