>There is an article here discussing, at least one side, what the bible has to say about executions:
>
>http://www.religioustolerance.org/exe_bibl.htm
>


Interesting site though I picked up some mistakes there. (In particular, the part about intercourse with a betrothed woman. If you read the relevant verses, the distinction is made not between whether the woman in engaged or not, but where it occurs. If the act occurs in the city, the woman is deemed to have consented because she could have screamed or otherwise prevented it, but if it occurs in the country ("the fields," I think is the wording), she'd considered a victim because of the isolation. I happened to be in synagogue recently when this was in the weekly reading and the commentary discusses this.)

IAC, what's also only briefly touched on there is how strict the rabbinic rules for capital punishment actually were. Not only were two eyewitnesses needed, but the perpetrator had to have been warned that what he was doing was wrong. IOW, actually executing someone was extremely rare. This is reflected in Israeli practice today, where the only person who's ever been executed is Eichmann.

Tamar