Applications of the Death Penalty: Stoning

After nearly being eradicated from the world, stoning is in the midst of a resurgence. As late as 2009, it was introduced onto the statute books of Indonesia, where previously it had not been.

It is currently in use, as a method of pursuing the death penalty, in Afghanistan, Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Somalia. It has also illegally been used by mobs or individuals in Mexico, Kurdistan, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and the USA.

There are two ways in which the condemned may be stoned to death.

The first is to be surrounded or to stand up against a wall. The victim is then pummeled with stones until they die.

The second, and most common mode, is for the person to be partially buried. A hole is dug especially in the ground for this purpose. This renders it much more difficult for the individual to raise their hands to ward away the stones.

Tradition states that anyone who is able to escape the pit will be allowed to live.  It's been observed that this is very difficult for men, who are buried up to their waists. It's practically impossible for women, who are interred to their necks.

Moreover, this custom is not always observed. On August 10th 1994, in Arak, Iran, a badly injured lady managed to free herself from the stoning pit. Both of her eyes had been knocked out, but she simply fled in any direction. Guards raced after her and shot her in the back.

Historically, condemned people were tightly wrapped in a shroud, secured into place with binds, before being slotted into the pit. Those individuals would have found it utterly impossible to escape. This method has been seen in Iran as recently as 1994. (If you wish to actually watch this happen, there's a video here. The stoning of two women occurs about 6 minutes in.)

Also in Iran, the penal law governs the size of the stones. Article 104 states: 'Stones used in stoning should neither be so big as to kill the adulterous at the first or second blow, nor as small as a pebble.'

Stoning is undoubtedly sanctioned by Biblical lore. The Old Testament covers the same ground as the Jewish Torah, so all of the offenses listed there also apply in Christianity.

However, Christian nations have been reluctant to follow through by adding this method of the death penalty onto their statute books. The reason lies in a curious entrapment story recounted in the Gospel of St John.

Chapter 8 tells how Jesus Christ was teaching in a temple, on the Mount of Olives, when he was visited by a group of Jewish Pharisees and scribes. In Mosaic Law, only they had the legal right to condemn a person to death, but nevertheless they asked Christ for his opinion.

The rabbis had brought with them a woman found guilty of adultery. Everyone present knew that the religious, and lawful, penalty for this was death by stoning. However, as already established in the section on Judaism, this had fallen out of favor with the populace.

There was a dilemma here. As a devout man, Christ should have been demanding that the Old Testament Laws be obeyed. This was precisely what he had been preaching. We know from the Gospel of St Matthew that Christ had been accusing the Pharisees of not upholding Mosaic Law.  "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." Matthew 5:17

But Christ was not a Pharisee himself. If he sentenced the woman to death, as the law dictated, then he immediately broke a second tenet of Mosaic Law. He didn't have the right to say it himself. Moreover, the stoning would not only go against public sympathy, but would condemn himself. It would give the Pharisees a legal reason to either execute Christ or hand him over to the Roman authorities.

Christ then pulled off a nifty turn of phrase. He neither saved her nor ordered the woman's stoning. He said, 'Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.'  In the silence, no-one did a thing. One by one the Pharisees stepped back, unwilling to place themselves in such a politically sensitive position either.

Finally the woman stood alone in front of Christ. As there was no longer anyone to accuse her of the crime, then it was case dismissed. She walked free.

However it seemed that the Pharisees did not appreciate this sleight of hand. They had arrived with rocks ready for a stoning (however cosmetic that may have originally been).  In the mounting tension, they appeared ready to start stoning Christ himself. He quickly hid in the side passageways of the temple, then secretly slipped away.

Jesus Christ did not condemn stoning. Indeed, his teachings in Matthew 5 appear to make it clear that he was attempting to reverse public opinion on the issue. As Jews became squeamish about the death penalty, Christ urged a return to the laws which demanded it.

But it appears that stoning has not been embraced as a method of judicial execution for the same reason as crucifixion.  It was nearly used to kill Christ and that, in the Christian mind, renders it practically sanctified. Anyone dying in this way could automatically be linked with the Messiah himself and that would never do for criminals.

However, not every Christian has interpreted it in that way.

On January 12th 2011, police were called to an apartment building in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, USA.

They found 28 year old John Joe Thomas sobbing in the hallway, telling them wildly, "I'm not going down there again, there is too much blood!"

Indeed there was. It was splattered all over the walls and furniture; and it belonged to the 70 year old man lying face down on the floor. Murray Seidman had been stoned to death in his own living room.

During questioning, John made a startling confession. He had deliberately executed the old man, according to the tenets of the Book of Leviticus. John alleged that he had consulted his Bible and prayed, after Murray had made sexual advances to him.

'If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them,' read Leviticus 20:13. It was in direct contradiction to 18:22/29, which merely recommended exile for the same.

Maybe John didn't think that he could force Murray to leave the community, so he took the former option.

John went outside and picked up a sizable rock, which was then placed into a sock. This was used to batter Murray ten times, until the old man lay dead. John is currently in prison awaiting trial for homicide.

This isn't the only example of illicit stoning in the Americas, though there's no evidence that the other three were religiously motivated. They are included here solely because they took place in Christian countries.

• In 1979, in Indiana, USA, three schoolboys stoned to death an Amish baby. The boys had been throwing rocks at a family riding past in a horse and trap, when an errant missile hit the infant. The boys received suspended jail sentences of between 3-5 years and were each fined between $2,000 to $5,000.
• In 2009, in Juárez, Mexico, Solangie Medina was stoned to death by three men, when she intercepted them trying to steal her car. Her murderers were each sentenced to 39 years in prison.
• In 2010, in Tancítaro, Mexico, Mayor Gustavo Santoro and an unnamed assistant were discovered stoned to death in their office. I've been unable to find out more on this story.

Siddqa had already been promised to another man. The arranged marriage had not yet taken place, but the betrothal had netted $9,000 for her father. She did not want to be engaged to her future husband, because she was already in love with another man.

Unfortunately, Khyyam was already married with two children. The couple could never be together in any conventional way. So they eloped to Pakistan and set up a home there, far away from family and friends.

Homesickness must have overtaken common sense and regard for the law, because Siddqa and Khyyam really did want to come home. Messages flew back and forth. Eventually they received the assurances that they needed.

If they returned to Dashte Archi, their district in Kunduz, Afghanistan, then they would be allowed to exist as man and wife. The Taliban elders promised it and their words were backed up by the Mullahs.

It was a trap. In a two am raid on their home, Siddqa and Khyyam were seized and taken out onto waste ground for sentencing. They were both found guilty of adultery and stoned where they stood.

Remarkably, Siddqa didn't die after two minutes of barrage, during which she tried desperately to crawl out of her hole. At one point, a large rock collided with her head and her burka became drenched with blood. She collapsed back into the pit, obviously unconscious. Siddqa was finally dispatched with two bullets to the head.

Then it was Khyyam's turn. He wasn't buried, but blindfolded with his own tunic. His arms were pinioned behind his back.

As his sentence was read out, he crouched down into a fetal shape in a futile defense of his own major organs. The first rock sent him sprawling.

For long minutes, he could be heard sobbing, face down on the floor, as stones bounce bloodily off his body. Then he's silent and still.

Zabiullah Mujahid, speaking on behalf of the Taliban, told the Times of Pakistan, “Anyone who knows about Islam knows that stoning is in the Koran, and that it is Islamic law. There are people who call it inhuman – but in doing so they insult the Prophet. They want to bring foreign thinking to this country.”

Thirteen year old Aisha was walking to her grandmother's house, when she was ambushed by three men. They took it in turns to rape her.

Many capital punishment sentences begin with the fury and outrage of an aggrieved family member. This one was no exception.

As soon as Aisha crawled home after her ordeal, her father was on the telephone. Ibrahim Duhulow demanded justice from the police department. They suggested that he bring his daughter in.

The Duhulow family are devout Muslims, who were new to the port city of Kismayo. They had arrived from the Hagardeer refugee camp in Kenya, just three months previously. This made things difficult, not least because it meant that Ibrahim had totally misjudged what would keep his daughter safe.

The al-Shabab officers listened carefully to the story, then they promptly arrested Aisha. They had not heard a rape report. They had heard a confession. Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow had admitted to intercourse with three men outside of marriage; and that was an offense punishable by stoning.

Early in the morning of October 27th 2008, vehicles with loudspeakers drove slowly around the city. Their announcement stated simply that there would be a stoning in the Kismayo football stadium at 4pm. Over 1000 people answered the call to witness it.

At the appointed time, Aisha was dragged out into their midst. There was a hole dug in the center of the pitch and she knew what was going to happen to her.

Sheik Hayakalah, on behalf of the authorities, had spoken on the local radio station. He told listeners, "The evidence came from her side and she officially confirmed her guilt, while she told us that she is happy with the punishment under Islamic law."

Those watching her being hauled onto the pitch had a different story to tell. Some said that she'd become mentally unstable after being separated from her family, in the aftermath of her triple rape. Others knew nothing about that. They could just see a clearly terrified child begging for her life.

"I'm not going, I'm not going." Aisha cried, referring to the pit dug for her. "Don't kill me! Don't kill me!"

Her parents and brothers were amongst the spectators, helpless to do anything about it. But there were other protesters too.

Everyone there was Muslim, but this did not look like Allah's will. There was a surge of people rushing onto the pitch to save her. But the militia were ready.

Shots were fired into the crowd and there were injuries. An eight-year-old boy was killed. (Sheik Hayakalah later publicly apologized for that and stated that the gunman had been punished.) Order was restored and the execution went on as planned.

Aisha screamed and tried to escape, as four men forced her into the pit. She struggled as she was buried up to her neck. For someone supposedly 'happy with the punishment', she was making a pitiful fuss.

Then fifty men surrounded her armed with hefty stones brought in especially for the death penalty. They pelted her with them, as she fought to free herself.

Finally it was over. A pause. Nurses rushed on to dig the teenager up and check for signs of life. She was still alive!  She was buried again and more stones came. Three times this occurred, until Aisha was eventually declared dead.

Even then, there was apparently a final round of stoning, just in case.

Her family fled Somalia shortly afterwards. Along with a veritable stream of people terrified that this could have happened to their daughter, their child, they made their way back to the refugee camps of Kenya and there they remain.