Here is the concept I alluded to in my recent answer to this question. If all the judges in the case all unanimously believe the defendant to be guilty, he is strangely found 'Not Guilty'.... Here is an explanation of this...
http://meaningfullife.com/torah/parsha/devarim/shoftim/Unanimous_Verdict.phpUnanimous Verdictby Chaya ShuchatThe issue of capital punishment excites much heated and vociferous discussion. One aspect of the debate concerns the fallibility of human judges and the element of uncertainty that accompanies their decisions. Can human judges be entrusted with the weighty responsibility of ruling on life and death matters? Another factor is whether capital punishment is right in itself. Does a society have the right to condemn its citizens to death? Does one injustice justify another?
What is the Torah’s position on the death penalty? The Torah is adamant in its views on the sanctity of life. No one has the right to harm or destroy any aspect of life, even if it affects only the individual himself. The entire Torah may be suspended to preserve a life, indeed, a court that metes out the death penalty once in seventy years is labeled in Torah as a court of “executioners”! Yet, Torah allows for and advocates capital punishment in certain instances. So we have a self-contradictory situation, where the Torah permits the court to put someone to death, but when they do so legally, the Torah declares them ‘executioners’! How does the Torah reconcile its view on the absolute value of human life with its condoning of capital punishment? How does the Torah ensure that the judges will not err and will be true?
In Jewish law, the court’s primary responsibility is to find merit for the accused, and to seek to preserve his life. "The congregation will judge him and the congregation will preserve him”[1]. The process of trying a capital case is overwhelmingly skewed towards the benefit of the defendant. No circumstantial evidence is accepted. The testimony of not one but two eyewitnesses is required, and both are carefully cross-examined for any discrepancies in their accounts. Furthermore, capital punishment is only meted out in a case where deliberate intent can be conclusively proved. Two witnesses must be produced who can testify to having warned the defendant in advance that his action was wrong, and of the consequences of that action. Another requirement of capital cases is the rule of "halanat hadin,”[2] that a guilty verdict must not be completed in one day, but must be deferred for another day in order to leave more opportunity to find credit.
In Maimonides’ Laws of Sanhedrin[3], the following law is cited: "If a Sanhedrin[4] opens a capital case with a unanimous guilty verdict, he is exempt, until some merit is found to acquit him; then, those who convict will be in the majority, and then he will be put to death."
The source of Maimonides’ ruling is in the Talmud Sanhedrin.[5] The reason given for the exemption is that the court did not fulfill the condition of "halanat hadin", deferring judgment for the next day in order to find merit. Since they have all found him guilty, they will no longer find merit for him.
It is possible to interpret the meaning of the Talmudic passage in one of two ways. One is that the court’s verdict is disqualified, due to the lack of "halanat hadin". Another way of viewing it is that by failing to find even one facet of merit, the Sanhedrin has disqualified itself from judging the case.
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Topic: Shmuley Boteach's book "Kosher Jesus" is not Kosher (Read 2182 times)