Synagogue Council, Ajcongress Urge End of Death Penalty

The American Jewish Congress and the Synagogue Council of America, which represents the country’s major Orthodox, Conservative and Reform rabbinical and congregational bodice, today asked the Supreme Court to abolish the death penalty as a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against “cruel and unusual punishment.” In a friend-of-the-court brief, the Jewish organizations said their opposition to the death penalty was based “on the demands of contemporary American democratic standards” and was also rooted “in ancient Jewish tradition.”

They cited Talmudic sources to show that as a practical matter, conviction in a capital case was “virtually impossible” under Jewish law. The law brief is addressed to four capital punishment cases which the Supreme Court will hear in its October term. Two of the four cases deal with imposition of the death penalty for nonhomicidal rape. The other two involve capital punishment imposed for murder. The Jewish groups urged the court to rule the death penalty unconstitutional in cases of nonhomicidal rape even if the justices were unwilling to declare it a disproportionate punishment for murder.

The brief amicus, filed today, was written by Leo Pfeffer, special counsel of the AJCongress. The two organizations noted that their brief was “not addressed to international crimes such as genocide.” In arguing against the constitutionality of the death penalty, the two organizations asserted that the Supreme Court “can and should determine whether any form of executing the death penalty is consistent with our present standards of civilization and humaneness.” The Jewish groups also asserted that there is considerable scholarly opinion concluding that the death penalty has no more deterrent force than life or long-time imprisonment and that its imposition may even be more cruel than if it were an effective deterrent.