Avi, Lets just talk about the Rambam in sefer hamitzvohs that says that using circumstantial evidence that is not 100% but 80% (i believe that reasonable doubt is legally about 70%) will lead to the killing of innocent men, and its to prevent the use of such evidence that the torah says ???? ????? ?? ?????, do not kill an innocent man.
So whoever the court is, using such evidence will kill innocent men and the reasoning of the torah, ???? ????? ?? ????? applies to any just person. And again I want to point out that there is never an example anywhere in torah of using anything other than proof. Beyond a reasonable doubt is not proof, but a probability, and there is no such suggestion anywhere in the torah.
I did not read what Rabbi Bliech writes, I know only that the only example of proof that the gemora says is used by a ben noach is a witness who is saying that he 100% sure, and since he is believed this is proof.
In Massachusetts they drafted a capital punishment bill a while back that required that the standard of proof for this penalty be “certainty”. That is something that should be adapted by all states. All states have criteria for who gets the death penalty and it makes no sense that they don’t add this to those criteria.
Another issue with capital punishment in America is felony murder which is 1st degree murder and is often the kind of murder for which the death penalty is imposed. A classic case of felony murder is if 2 people rob a store and one of them kills the clerk even of the other person didn’t even know that he had a gun he is guilty. A case that i recall was a homeless man who was sleeping in an abandoned building and he lit a fire to keep warm. The fire got out of control and a firefighter died fighting the fire. Even though the death of the fire fighter was not his fault, since he was in the building illegally even if the fire starts by mistake, under the law its considered arson. So he was convicted of felony murder because the statute does not require that he cause the death, it requires only that the death shall be a result of the felony.
Felony murder is not murder at all and so execution for this is flat out state sanctioned murder.