[Avodah] No Right of Pardon in Halacha

[Yitzchok Levine]

RSRH writes in his commentary on Shemos 21

14 But if one deliberately plots against another, 
to kill him with premeditation, then you must 
take him away [even] from My altar
that he may die.

The whole idea of the right of pardon is absent in the code of law
of the Jewish state. Justice and judgment are God’s, not man’s. When
the precisely defined Law of God — which leaves no room for human
arbitrariness — ordains death for a criminal, the execution of the sentence
is not a harsh act that can be commuted in consideration of the
circumstances, but is itself a most considerate atonement — for the
community, for the land, for the criminal; it is an atonement, just as
an offering upon the altar is an atonement. 
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