Stoning: Difference between revisions

Stoning, or lapidation, refers to a form of capital punishment whereby an organized group throws stones at an individual until the person dies, or (in ancient Judaism) the condemned person is pushed from a platform set high enough above a stone floor.

Stoning in Judaism

Bible and Judaic prescriptions

In historical times, the laws for stoning in Judaism dictated that two reputable people must have witnessed the offense (and must witness the stoning). Since the period of the Midrash, Jewish commentators have put forward arguments that have effectively discontinued the use of stoning, though its sanction remains clearly and inescapably part of the Torah.^[1]

Torah

In the Torah, which is also called the Five Books of Moses in the Hebrew Bible, prescribes death by stoning for a series of offenses, namely:

Touching Mount Sinai while God was giving Moses the Ten Commandments (Exodus 19:13)
An ox that gores someone to death should be stoned (Exodus 21:28)
Publically Breaking the Shabbat (Numbers 15:32-36)
Giving one's "seed" (presumably one's offspring) "to Moloch a form of human sacrifice" (Leviticus 20:2-5)
Having a "familiar spirit" (or being a necromancer) or being a "wizard" (Lev. 20:27)
Cursing the Name of God. (Lev. 24:10-16)
Engaging in idolatry (Deuteronomy 17:2-7) or seducing others to do so (Deut. 13:7-12)
"Rebellion and Stubbornness" against parents (Deut. 21:18-21)
Sexual intercourse between a man and a woman engaged to another man (both should be stoned, Deut. 22:23-24), unless in case of rape.

Mishna

The Mishnah gives the following list of persons who should be stoned (Sanhedrin Chapter 7, p. 53a [1])

A man who has sexual intercourse with one of the following (see Lev. 20, which however does not specify the form of execution):
- his mother
- his father's wife
- his daughter-in-law
- another man
- an animal ("bestiality")
A woman who allows an animal to have sexual intercourse with her
A blasphemer
An idolater
One who gives his seed to Moloch
A necromancer or wizard
One who publically desecrates the Sabbath
One who curses his father and mother
One who has sexual intercourse with a betrothed maiden
One who incites or instigates (toward idolatry)
A sorcerer
A wayward and rebellious son

In practice

There are no historically verified accounts of such a punishment being actually legally inflicted.

In traditional sources

There are three cases in the Bible (see list below) in which a person was stoned to death as a punishment. But there are also five or six cases where someone was stoned by a mob, or not in a legal fashion. A detailed recorded case of stoning occurs in the Book of Joshua (7, 24) when a man named Achan (עכן) was found to have kept loot from Jericho, a conquered Canaanite city, in his tent.

As manifest also in Jewish sources contemporary with and prior to early Christianity, particularly the Mishnah, doubts were growing in Jewish society about the morality of capital punishment in general and stoning in particular. For example, according to Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel in the time when the religious courts had authority over capital punishment, a court that executed more than 1 person in 70 years was a "bloody court".^[2]

In the following centuries the leading Jewish sages imposed so many restrictions on the actual implementation of capital punishment — especially, many difficult-to-fulfill conditions for a testimony to be admissible (Sanhedrin) - as to make the imposition of capital punishment virtually impossible in practice.

The Talmud limits the use of the death penalty to Jewish criminals who: (A) while about to do the crime were warned not to commit the crime while in the presence of two witnesses (and only individuals who meet a strict list of standards are considered acceptable witnesses); and (B) having been warned, committed the crime in front of the same two witnesses.^[3] The Talmudic method of how stoning is to be carried out differs from mob stoning such as implied by the story of Jesus and the woman taken in adultery in the Gospel of John. According to the Jewish Oral Law, after the Jewish criminal has been determined as guilty before the Great Sanhedrin, the two valid witnesses and the sentenced criminal go to the edge of a high place. From there the two witnesses are to push the criminal off. After the criminal has fallen, the two witnesses are to drop a large boulder onto the criminal - requiring both of the witnesses to lift the boulder together. If the criminal did not die from the fall or from the crushing of the large boulder, then any people in the surrounding area are to quickly cause him to die by stoning with whatever rocks they can find.

Josephus reports that the Sanhedrin, under the instigation of Hanan ben Hanan, put James the Just to death by stoning.

Stoning in Christianity

According to the Bible, Jesus of Nazareth condemned and prevented the stoning an adulteress (John 8:1-11) and the Early Church, to the chagrin of Tertullian who was scandalized by the acceptance of sinners into the Church, accepted repented adulterers.

Stoning in Islam

Template:Muslims and controversies

The Quran does not prescribe stoning as a punishment for any crime and Islamic scholars are divided over its validity as a punishment for adultery. In Islam, stoning (which is the penalty for a married person committing adultery) is the only capital punishment which requires four credible eye-witnesses. They must swear on oath that they all actually witnessed the penetrative act simultaneously leading to suggestions that the evidentiary burden is set so impossibly high that only self-incrimination could result in a successful sentence.

It is also important to note that in Islam a person who confesses to adultery can be his/her own witness, but that he/she must incriminate him/herself on oath four times^{[citation needed]} before a sentence of stoning can be passed (in the case of a married person) or 100 lashes (if the person is not married). ^{[citation needed]}.

Usage today

Among the world's countries with Muslim majorities, only a few of them exercise this form of Islamic Shariah punishment.

Afghanistan

Before the Taliban government, most areas of Afghanistan, aside from the capital, Kabul, were controlled locally by warlords or tribal leaders, the Afghan legal system depended highly on an individual community's local culture and the political and/or religious ideology of its leaders. Stoning also occurred in lawless areas, where vigilantes decide to commit the act for political purposes. Once the Taliban Government took over, stoning became the official punishment for many crimes, although once the U.S.-led occupation started, stoning had ended as an official court ruling, but still occurs unofficially.^[4]

Iran

In Iran, stoning as a punishment did not exist until 1983, when the contemporary Islamic Penal Code was ratified. Some Muslim jurists in Iran^[who?] are of the opinion that while stoning can be considered Islamic, the conditions under which it can be sentenced are nearly impossible to occur. Because of the large burden of proof needed to reach a guilty sentence of adultery, its penalty is hardly ever applicable. Furthermore, while legally on the books, because vociferous domestic and international controversy and outcry over stoning in the early years of the Islamic republic, the government placed official moratoriums on the punishment and, as a result, it was rarely practiced. Nevertheless, much of the public was outraged that such a backward and torturous ritual became instituted in the laws of their country.^{[citation needed]}

The Iranian judiciary officially placed a moratorium on stoning in 2002,^[5] although the punishment remained on the books, and there were a few cases of judges handing down stoning sentences in 2006 and 2007.^[6] Iran's judiciary decided in 2008 to fully scrap the punishment from the books in a legislation submitted to parliament for approval.^[7] As of June 2009, Iran's parliament has been reviewing and revising the Islamic penal code to omit stoning as a form of punishment.^[8]

According to Amnesty International, three people were stoned to death in 2006-2007, and as of January 2008 nine women and two men were sentenced to death by stoning.^[9]

One woman, Mahboubeh M, was stoned to death in 2007 after confessing—allegedly under duress—to adultery. Another, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, was sentenced to it in July 2010, despite a campaign by her children and despite her confession having occurred during 99 lashes received, and which was later recanted. Her stoning is on hold as of July, 2010, but high Iranian officials have publicly stated that the stoning will go forward. "The verdict is definitive and applicable. But it has been halted due to humanitarian reservations and based on the judiciary chief's order," he said.^[10]

Somalia

In October, 2008, a girl, Aisho Ibrahim Dhuhulow was buried up to her neck at a football stadium, then stoned to death in front of more than 1,000 people. The stoning occurred after she had allegedly pleaded guilty to adultery in a sharia court in Kismayo, a city controlled by Islamist insurgents. According to the insurgents she had stated that she wanted shari`ah law to apply.^[11]

However, other sources state that the victim had been crying, that she begged for mercy and had to be forced into the hole before being buried up to her neck in the ground.^[12] Amnesty International later learned that the girl was in fact 13 years old and had been arrested by al-Shabab militia after she had reported being gang-raped by three men.^[13]

In December 2009, another instance of stoning was publicized. Mohamed Abukar Ibrahim was accused of adultery by the Hizbul Islam militant group.^[14]

Saudi Arabia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates

Stonings, with and without legal proceedings have been reported in Sudan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.^[15]

Support for the practice of stoning

In a survey carried out in Indonesia it found that "almost half the respondents back stoning as a punishment for adulterers."^[16]However, some scholars disagree with this report, stating that the Indonesian government conducting a survey about stoning is irrelevant because capital punishment does not exist in Indonesian law and is unlikely to be implemented because it contradicts the constitution of Indonesia.^[17]. Therefore, this report is not official and its validity can not be verified. Indonesian law is based on civil law system. Stoning currently is against the law in Indonesia, defined as a "Crime Against Life and Torture." ^[18]

Groups against the practice of stoning

Stoning has been condemned by several human rights organizations. Some groups, such as Amnesty International^[19] and Human Rights Watch, oppose all capital punishment, including stoning. Other groups, such as and RAWA (Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan), oppose stoning per se as an especially "cruel" practice.

Specific sentences of stoning, such as the Amina Lawal case, have often generated international protest. Groups like Human Rights Watch,^[20] while in sympathy with these protests, have raised a concern that the Western focus on stoning as an especially "exotic" or "barbaric" act distracts from what they view as the larger problems of capital punishment. They argue that the "more fundamental human rights issue in Nigeria is the dysfunctional justice system."

In Iran, the Stop Stoning Forever Campaign was formed by various women’s rights activists after a man and a woman were stoned to death in Mashhad Iran in May 2006. Their main goal is to legally abolish stoning as a form of punishment for adultery in Iran.^[5]

People who were stoned to death

James the Just, in AD 62, after being condemned by the Sanhedrin.
Saint Timothy, after AD 67
Pancras of Taormina
Constantine-Silvanus, founder of the Paulicians, stoned in 684 at Armenia
Saint Eskil, Anglo-Saxon monk stoned to death by Swedish Vikings
Moctezuma II, last Aztec Emperor (although the Aztecs claim he was executed by the Spanish.)
Du’a Khalil Aswad, stoned to death in Iraqi Yazidi Kurdistan (2007)
Soraya Manutchehri, stoned to death in Iran after being falsely accused of adultery
Lucius Appuleius Saturninus, d. 100 BC, grandfather of later triumvir Marcus Aemilius Lepidus

People who were almost stoned

Amina Lawal, sentenced to death by stoning in Nigeria, but freed on appeal
Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani sentenced to death by stoning in Iran, but sentence is under review.

People stoned (in religious texts)

In the Tanakh and Old Testament:

The son of an Israelite woman and an Egyptian man, for cursing God (Leviticus 24:10-23)
A man who gathered wood on Shabbat (Numbers 15:32-36)
Yeshu, a person mentioned in the Talmud as a sorcerer and an inciter to idolatry
Achan (Joshua 7)
Adoniram, King Rehoboam's tax man (I Kings 12:18)
Naboth, (I Kings 21)
Zechariah ben Jehoiada, who denounced the people's disobedience to the commandments (II Chronicles 24:20-21, perhaps also Matt. 23:35)

In the New Testament:

Saint Stephen, sentenced for blasphemy c. AD 31(Acts 6:8–14 Acts 7:58–60).

Others:

Palamedes (mythology), stoned to death as a traitor.

People who were almost stoned (in religious texts)