[Posted August 5, 2009]

Capital Punishment

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

We are all not innocent here in this material world...

The New Yorker Sep 7, 2009 - DAVID GRANN

Trial by Fire

Did Texas execute an innocent man?

Cameron Todd Willingham insisted upon his innocence in the deaths of his children and refused an offer to plead guilty in return for a life sentence.

...Just before Willingham received the lethal injection, he was asked if he had any last words. He said, “The only statement I want to make is that I am an innocent man convicted of a crime I did not commit. I have been persecuted for twelve years for something I did not do. From God’s dust I came and to dust I will return, so the Earth shall become my throne.” go to story

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Getting off lightly

If we all did it ... A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Political morality is to punish a person by a death sentence in order to save a cruel person from going to hell. That a murderer is condemned to a death sentence by the state is good for the culprit because in his next life he will not have to suffer for his act of murder. Such a death sentence for the murderer is the lowest possible punishment offered to him, and it is said in the smriti-shastras that men who are punished by the king on the principle of a life for a life are purified of all their sins, so much so that they may be eligible for being promoted to the planets of heaven. more

Willingham was wrongfully executed by the State of Texas, innocent as he was in the deaths of his children. Somehow or other his karma placed him in a situation from which he could not extricate himself, karmic reactions carried over from his previous life. His death is not a reflection on the so-called immorality of capital punishment, but a reflection on the incompetence and indifference of the persons who were supposed to defend him - a failure on the part of the investigators and court. Capital punishment is not immoral; its detractors do not understand the laws of karma.

Carrying the reactions from activities in this life to the next

Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.1.8, text and purport

Therefore, before one's next death comes, as long as one's body is strong enough, one should quickly adopt the process of atonement according to shastra; otherwise one's time will be lost, and the reactions of his sins will increase. As an expert physician diagnoses and treats a disease according to its gravity, one should undergo atonement according to the severity of one's sins.

PURPORT
The dharma-shastras like the Manu-samhita prescribe that a man who has committed murder should be hanged and his own life sacrificed in atonement. Previously this system was followed all over the world, but since people are becoming atheists, they are stopping capital punishment. This is not wise. Herein it is said that a physician who knows how to diagnose a disease prescribes medicine accordingly. If the disease is very serious, the medicine must be strong. The weight of a murderer's sin is very great, and therefore according to Manu-samhita a murderer must be killed. By killing a murderer the government shows mercy to him because if a murderer is not killed in this life, he will be killed and forced to suffer many times in future lives. Since people do not know about the next life and the intricate workings of nature, they manufacture their own laws, but they should properly consult the established injunctions of the shastras and act accordingly. In India even today the Hindu community often takes advice from expert scholars regarding how to counteract sinful activities. In Christianity also there is a process of confession and atonement. Therefore atonement is required, and atonement must be undergone according to the gravity of one's sinful acts.

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