PENALTY

WORLD RELIGIONS AND
THE DEATH PENALTY
Mario Marazziti 1
After the Dalai Lama finished speaking at an event on the Capitoline
Hill in Rome, I asked him to be one of the first signatories of the
Community of Sant’Egidio’s Appeal for a Moratorium on the Death
Penalty. He accepted immediately—he signed in green ink—and
frankly, it was no surprise. Who more than the Dalai Lama is identified
with unconditional respect for life?
Buddhism, however, exists in many forms, so it is hard to say that
it has one clear message on the death penalty. And so it is with all
world religions. On the one hand, their core teachings seem to argue
strongly against taking life; on the other, religious bodies have often
vigorously supported the death penalty.
BUDDHISM
All schools of Buddhism emphasize compassion, nonviolence and
respect for human life, and they encourage their adherents to abstain
from killing or injuring any living creature. But the Buddha, while
against physical punishment in general, left no clear statement about
capital punishment.
The way to restore a wrong is not through another wrong. Rather,
a counterweight is needed, so that the more evil there is on the one
side, the more good there is on the other side. Buddhists believe in
the cycle of birth and rebirth, Samsara, and that the death penalty
will negatively affect both souls, the one who is punished and the
one who punishes. Trying to gain recompense for evil, even violent
death, by inflicting further death will simply cause a greater imbalance
in the world; only rehabilitation has a chance to restore the
harmony in life.
The cruel ultimate punishment has little chance of healing society
and re-establishing the law, because excessive cruelty injures the mind
of the offender and of those who administer death, whatever the
reason. Compassion cannot cope with capital punishment; if a crime
is horrible, as a last resort, the offender should be banished from the
community so as not to do any further harm.
But in many countries where Buddhism is influential, such as Myanmar
and Thailand, the death penalty is still legal and executions are
still carried out; the practical needs of the society have prevailed. It
seems that capital punishment and Buddhism are on two opposite
sides philosophically but not historically.
Buddhist doctrines hold nonviolence and compassion for all
life in high regard. The First Precept of Buddhism requires
individuals to abstain from injuring or killing all living
creatures and Buddha’s teaching restricts Buddhist monks
from any political involvement. Using historical documents
and interviews with contemporary authorities on Buddhist
doctrine, our research uncovered a long history of political
involvement by Buddhist monks and Buddhist support of
violence. Yet, there seems to be limited Buddhist involvement
in Southeast Asian countries in death penalty issues.
. . .
The death penalty is inconsistent with Buddhist teachings.
. . . Yet, evidence suggests that most Southeast Asian countries
practiced capital punishment long before the Buddhist
influence emerged in India in 400 to 500 B.C. 2
Tomoko Sasaki, a former member of the Japanese parliament, evoked
retribution: “A basic teaching [in Japanese Buddhism] is retribution.
If someone evil does something bad, he has to atone with his own life.
If you take a life, you have to give your own.” 3 The concept of retribution
could be seen as consistent with the central concept of karma
in Buddhism, the way in which the Buddha explained inequality and
1 Mario Marazziti, spokesperson for the Community of Sant’Egidio and currently a member of
the Italian legislature.
2 Leanne Fiftal Alarid and Hsiao-Ming Wang, “Mercy and punishment: Buddhism and the death
penalty”, Social Justice, vol. 28 (2001), pp. 231-247.
3 Charles Lane, “Why Japan still has the death penalty”, Washington Post, 16 January 2005.
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