“The death penalty, even when justified, should not be torturous. This kind of fantasizing is morally objectionable, and manifests a corrupt mind.”
In the Bible, justice was eye-for-an-eye.
Stoning was also a common form of capital punishment which is certainly “torture” by today’s standards.
There are limits to what is humane when it comes to human justice. But I think we’ve erred greatly on the side of favoring the criminals over the victims in our society.
There are times when it would be better to have no law at all and let people simply mete out justice as they see fit.
In cases like this I’d support giving immunity to a close relative of a murdered and tortured child and let the family member decide what is just.
Pay close attention to what this passage says about someone who burns someone in a crime:
Exodus 21:22-25
If men fight, and hurt a woman with child, so that she gives birth prematurely, yet no harm follows, he shall surely be punished accordingly as the woman’s husband imposes on him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
More similar passages:
Leviticus 24:19-20
If a man causes disfigurement of his neighbor, as he has done, so shall it be done to him— fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; as he has caused disfigurement of a man, so shall it be done to him.
See what it says about sympathy for criminals:
Deuteronomy 19:21
Your eye shall not pity: life shall be for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
May I reference the New Covenant?
In the Old Testament, under the Law, justice was eye for an eye. There’s a distinction between then, and now.
You will see brief references to the Philistines, or the Perizzites, or wicked men like Adoni-bezek, doing such things: they are mentioned as evidence of their depravity. In one instance only does David order the hands and feet of murderers to be cut off, after they were executed; in NO instance is this ordered by the penal legislation of Israel, and commentators point out that David's amputations, even after death, were not in observance, but in violation, of the tenets and spirit of Mosaic law.
In Hittite, Mesopotamian, and Ugaritic literature, you will see lots of texts celebrating torture. These chronicles and legislative texts spell out in graphic detail flaying, the maiming of criminals, enemies and captives, cutting off thumps and toes, castration, disemboweling,torment by fire and water, and sickening piecemeal mutilation.
This is just the sort of thing the Canaanites were abhorred for, referencing their particular depravity: the whole agenda of hell on earth, which is torture.
Although war and the death penalty are spelled out in the Torah, the OT royal chronicles and the Prophets, what you won't find is sadistic displays and judicial mutilation.
Finally, Jesus in the NT (Matthew 5-7) completely and explicitly rejects the whole Law of Talion.