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No Stoning
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Stoning, or lapidation, refers to a form of capital punishment whereby an organized group throws stones at the convicted individual until the person dies.

Stoning has been used throughout history in a number of places, both in the form of community justice and also as a judicial form of capital punishment. The practice is referred to in Greek history, as well as Christian, Jewish, and Islamic texts.

THE CROWD GATHERS around as tears flow down her cheeks. Her last day will be her worst. The assorted gang are allowed stones of a particular size: Not bigger than, nor smaller than one-third of, a human digit. Hence, the stones should be around one-half the size of an adult finger. The logic is to inflict the maximal pain. The objective is to stone the adulterous woman to death.

The woman is buried up to her neck as her kids watch the whole scene. The Iranian state forces the close relatives of the woman to attend the public execution. A truck pulls up with the correctly proportioned stones. The verdict is read and then the official of the regime throws the first stone.

The chanting and the barrage start. The stones smash into her delicate face. Soon, the red liquid gushes out of her forehead. The intensity of the direct hits gouges out her right eye. Her nose gets completely broken. Her teeth are torn apart. She inhales a mixture of noxious air and blood. Her face is forever lost.

She streams in and out of consciousness. Shards of bone are sent in all directions as the stones brutally chisel the region where once her face was. The last thing she hears as the crowd extinguishes her frail soul is, "Allah Akbar!"

Such is the fate of women who are found guilty of adultery in Iran. In the modern world, no other state-sanctioned punishment exceeds this heinous display of public savagery.

Groups against the practice of stoning

Stoning has been condemned by every human rights organization. Some groups, such as Amnesty International[1] 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,[2] 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."

Secular use

No non-religious court of law recognizes stoning as a form of legal punishment.[citation needed] There have also been numerous cases where stoning refers to layers of rocks being placed on a victim to squeeze them to death, a practice more properly known as crushing.

Religious use

Bible, Judaism and Christianity

The Old Testament of Christianity, which is the Tanakh of the Jews and as such a common book of religious reference, prescribes death by stoning for a long series of offences, including:

* Adultery (including an engaged woman having sex with a man other than her fiance) (Deuteronomy 22:23-24)
* Having sex with animals ("bestiality")
* Engaging in idolatry or seducing others to do so
* Homosexual relations
* Breaking the Sabbath
* Cursing God
* If an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall surely be stoned and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall go unpunished. (Exodus 21-28)
* In addition, Deuteronomy (21,21) specifies that the parents of "a rebellious son" (?? ???? ?????) may bring him to the market square and ask the townspeople to stone him to death.
* For touching Mount Sinai Exodus 19:13
* For a woman who is not a virgin on her wedding night Deuteronomy 22:13-21

There are, however, only scarce mentions of such a punishment being actually inflicted. A detailed recorded case of stoning occurs in the Book of Joshua (7, 24) when an officer named Achan (???) was caught looting in Jericho, a conquered Canaanite city. Under the mores reflected in that book, massacring the Canaanites was an acceptable and indeed praiseworthy act, but disobedience to God's command by taking loot to oneself was an act heinous enough that not only Achan himself but also his entire family were stoned to death by the gathered Hebrews, as a punishment.

In the first century AD, such laws were formally still in force for the Jewish society of which Jesus was a member - but as recounted in a famous New Testament story, Jesus intervened to save an adulteress from stoning, drawing possible conclusions that the sin of adultery was no longer worthy of capital punishment, or that capital punishment itself is possibly no longer necessary.

As manifest also in Jewish sources contemporary with early Christianity, particularly the Talmud[citation needed], doubts were growing in Jewish society about the morality of capital punishment in general and stoning in particular. In the following centuries the leading Jewish sages[citation needed] imposed so many restrictions on the actual implementation of capital punishment - especially, many difficult to fulfill conditions for a testimony to be admissible - as to make the imposition of capital punishment virtually impossible in practice. In any case, Jews in the latter part of their history were not often in a position to impose capital punishments.

In Islam

"Within sharia law, there is a specific set of offences known as the Hadd offences. These are crimes punished by specific penalties, such as stoning, lashes or the severing of a hand. The penalties for Hadd offences are not universally adopted as law in Islamic countries."

As with many religions today, not all holy books reference a particular topic. Islamic scholars argue both sides of stoning within Islam, but regardless, many cases of stoning continue to this day. However, unlike Judaism where for capital punishment to take place two reputable witnesses must witness the Hadd offense including stoning Hadd, in Islam stoning (which is the penalty for committing adultery under marriage wedlock only) is the only capital punishment which requires four witnesses "accusers" to admit that they saw the defenders sexually interacts. It is also important to note that in Islam a person whom admit adultery can be the witness upon himself only, yet according to sharia law he must oath on himself four times [citation needed] before he can be punished with the appropriate punishment which is stoning if the person is under wedlock or lashing a 100 lash if the person is not under wedlock. Husbands can also launch a charge against their spouses, and have (in support) no evidence but their own,- their solitary evidence (can be received) if they bear witness four times (with an oath) by Allah that they are solemnly telling the truth; And the fifth (oath) (should be) that they solemnly invoke the curse of Allah on themselves if they tell a lie;But it would avert the punishment from the wife, if she bears witness four times (with an oath) By Allah, that (her husband) is telling a lie;And the fifth (oath) should be that she solemnly invokes the wrath of Allah on herself if (her accuser) is telling the truth; Verse 24.006 - 24.009. The last possible way for stoning as penalty for adultery under wedlock is that a woman concealing under marriage wedlock, considering that DNA is not accepted as an evidence in shar'aa law.

Usage today

There are currently some 49 states with Muslim majorities, and very few of them (the unofficial sharia court which runs in parallel with judicial court) exercise this form of punishment; when they do, they often face criticism.

Afghanistan

As most areas of Afghanistan, aside from the capital, Kabul, are controlled locally by warlords or tribal leaders, the Afghan legal system depends highly on an individual communities' local culture and the political and/or religious ideology of its leaders. Stoning also occurs in lawless areas, where vigilantes decide to commit the act for religious and/or political purposes.

Iran

The Iranian judiciary has officially placed a moratorium on stoning, although the punishment remains on the books. Stoning had occurred in Iran, for crimes including but not limited to adultery. "The penalty for adultery under Article 83 of the penal code, called the Law of Hodoud is flogging (100 lashes of the whip) for unmarried male and female offenders. Married offenders may be punished by stoning regardless of their gender. Exact figures cannot be found on numbers.

Nigeria

Stoning is available as a punishment under Sharia in Nigeria. The most famous case is that of Amina Lawal, who was sentenced to death for having sex-out-of-wedlock, as she is not married and found herself pregnant.

The death sentences through stoning of the years 2001 and 2002 in northern Nigeria sparked international discussion on Sharia?s imposition of stoning. Between 2000 and 2001 twelve northern Nigerian states officially declared Sharia to be their criminal code, even though many of its regulations conflict with the Nigerian constitution. The introduction of Sharia law directly and indirectly led to many violent riots.

Pakistan

Islamic law in Pakistan still allows stoning as a form of punishment, however, no such executions have taken place in the country.

[edit] Saudi Arabia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates

Sentences to stoning or stonings without a sentence were also reported within the last years from Sudan, Saudi-Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

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