Because it has been almost a year since I last wrote an entry in this series, I will quickly summarize the contents of the other two posts [1] before I proceed to deal with the next category of torture in this post. I will continue from where I left off, so read the other two posts for a fuller explanation of what I will summarize below.
Previously I explained how Deuteronomy 25:1-3 prescribes 1-40 lashes for miscellaneous offenses, with the explicit command to not exceed 40 lashes and to not degrade criminals in punishment. I also dissected how Exodus 21:23-25 and Leviticus 24:19-21 prescribe the amputation of body parts as punishment for inflicting permanent mutilations on others (I addressed previously how passages like Exodus 21:18-19 and 21:22 clearly demand financial penalties for some assaults and batteries, not mirror physical punishment). Additionally, Deuteronomy 25:11-12 demands that a woman who grabs a man's genitals in a fight--even if the man is brawling with her husband--have her hand removed.
As I noted before, flogging of 1-40 lashes had multiple moral boundaries explained in the text of Deuteronomy 25:1-3, including how flogging was not to be combined with execution as in some wicked pagan nations like Rome; also, the mirror punishment "eye for eye" principle of Exodus 21:23-25 applied solely to cases of physical assault and battery resulting in permanent physical injury (and not to slave trading, abduction, rape, or other crimes [2]). The torture prescribed by the Bible is very mild compared to what has been legalized or called "just" throughout human history. Whereas other nations (Assyria, for instance) used mutilation frequently, the Bible expressly limits punishments of bodily mutilation to only two instances. Whereas some other nations around ancient Israel reportedly indulged in ferocious and prolonged torture of convicted men and women, the Bible condemns all punishments that degrade the recipient in Deuteronomy 25 and reveals the objective line past which no one can deserve to be flogged.
With some of the previous points summarized, now I will move on to the issue of torture to obtain confessions of crime and information about criminal cases.
The Bible condemns using torture to coerce confessions of crime.
I will quote three passages from Mosaic Law to establish this.
Deuteronomy 17:6--"On the testimony of two or three witnesses a man shall be put to death, but no one shall be put to death on the testimony of only one witness."
Deuteronomy 19:15--"One witness is not enough to convict a man accused of any crime or offense he may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses."
Numbers 35:30--"Anyone who kills a person is to be put to death as a murderer on the testimony of witnesses. But no one is to be put to death on the testimony of only one witness."
All three verses affirm the same teaching with explicit clarity: two or three witnesses must condemn someone for that person to be legitimately convicted of criminal guilt. This principle directly prohibits both trial by ordeal and torture to force a confession of guilt. It also forms the Biblical basis of the right to remain silent (the 5th Amendment). No flogging, waterboarding, physical assault, or psychological torture are permitted in order to coerce someone into admitting guilt, whether true or feigned. A person accused of a crime must not be mistreated or abused before or after any eventual conviction.
Although this is a practical issue and not a moral one, since it has to do with the effectiveness and not the inherent morality or immorality of torture for confessions, it is true that someone could lie, whether about innocence or guilt, in order to make the torture end. Depending on the duration of the torture, the method(s) used, and the condition of the tortured individual's mind and body, the tortured person might give the torturers whatever information they want just to end the suffering irrespective of its veracity.
Torture to force confessions is not wrong because it is sometimes ineffective, though, but because torturing men and women for information contradicts God's nature and he is the only moral authority. No one can deserve to be tortured like this according to Biblical ethics, and after a legitimate sentencing no one can deserve to be tortured in any way except for the specific manners prescribed in the Bible--mutilation for crimes of inflicting permanent injuries, amputation of the hand for a woman grabbing a man's genitals in a fight (and by logical extension for a man grabbing a woman's genitals in a fight), and 1-40 lashes on the back of an offender in the presence of the judge. I am just pointing out that regardless of the morality of such pre-sentencing torture, the desired results will not necessarily be achieved.
So far, in this series I have shown that the Bible prohibits all torture before a just sentencing and all torture after sentencing other than 1-40 lashes for certain miscellaneous offenses and mutilation of body parts for two specific crimes. In later parts I will discuss what Mosaic Law says about torture as it pertains to execution methods (I've written on this somewhat before [3]) and psychological torture.
[1]. See here:
A. https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2016/12/bible-on-torture-part-1.html
B. https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2016/12/bible-on-torture-part-2.html
[2]. https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2016/07/eye-for-eye.html
[3]. See here:
A. https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2016/07/capital-crimes-part-3.html
B. https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2016/12/we-are-getting-what-our-deeds-deserve.html
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