This week's Torah portion, Mishpatim, advises parents challenged by an obstreperous teenager to kill the child. However, a death sentence for any child or even for an adult was quite extreme and in most instances was virtually impossible to carry out. This Torah portion encourages us to think carefully about the issue of capital punishment and our responsibility to prevent today's children from becoming tomorrow's capital offenders.
Jewish tradition is circumspect about punishment in general.
Talmudic rabbis changed the thrust of the biblical lex talionis by interpreting the law to require financial compensation for loss of income, medical damages, damage for shame, physical or emotional pain and suffering. A life must be repaid with a life except in cases of accidental death. Today, popular sentiment increasingly calls for the death penalty in response to capital crime. Capital punishment provides victims' families with an outlet for revenge. A death sentence instead of life imprisonment stresses that capital crime is inherently evil.