Are Jews Exempt from Capital Punishment?

Chapter Nine of Tractate Sanhedrin continues the Talmud's discussion of capital crimes. As we have seen, the Torah provides for four types of execution. Crimes against God, such as idol-worship, are punished by stoning; sexual crimes, such as the licentiousness of a priest's daughter, are punished by burning. These types of offenses are the most serious in Jewish law, because they represent attacks on God's purity and authority. But for that very reason, they have no parallel in modern, secular legal systems, which are concerned with crimes against human beings.