From the Buddhist classics, it can be seen that Buddhism does not condone the death penalty. Both the Buddah and his disciples perceive the death penalty as the highest form of torture, that forgiveness transcends revenge, and encourages people to refuse the desire to execute someone. This is seen as the fundamental ‘no killing’ principle in Buddhism. A Yu-Wang uses this principle to change the perspective on Buddhist karma, and thus remodeled government policy to reflect this principle and thus changed India’s punishment policy, creating a new culture within India that for a long time did not have any death penalties. This also influenced Japan and Tibet’s view on death penalties, eliminating them from government policies as well, as Buddhism spread over to those regions. Shravaka Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism, as well as sophisticated Mahayana Buddhism all used commandments, cycle of retributions, traditional practices, myths and curses to provide cases against the death penalty in Buddhism. This article seeks to highlight the Buddhism condemnation of the death penalty by observing the spirituality of Buddhism through karma retribution and authority. Overall, the Buddhist thought favors kindness and peace, and believes that it triumphs over the human will and authority. Authority is perceived to be a troublesome matter concocted by people, and is only controlled by karmic retribution, and can not be overlooked.
