Death Penalty and Buddha

Not too long ago I was reading a friend's online comments about the death penalty having been repealed in Connecticut.  There were several viewpoints express by many who responded. I did not reply, but it got me thinking. 


Without explicitly stating my position on the whole thing, I feel comfortable stating that I am  OK with not penalizing folks who need to kill another in self-defense. But, what about when the damage is done? What about when someone does something terrible and someone needs to be held accountable? 


I started thinking about the act of inflicting death...killing...etc. I thought about the horrible executions committed by the likes of Hitler, Manson, etc...  Then I imagined that I was side by side with a total stranger and someone said one of us has to die, and I had to decide who it was. What would I do? I wasn't sure. At first I thought, "If it's me or him who has to go, it's him." Then I thought, "What would Jesus or Buddha do?" ...He probably wouldn't say "it's him."  What would make this scenario more helpful? I thought about how maybe greater universal powers are really at play when it comes to life and death. Assuming that, then it would be more realistic to imagine that it was Buddha telling me that I or my neighbor has to die. And then it came like an epiphany. I remembered an old Zen Koan: "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him!" 


I laughed out loud. That Koan is designed to get Zen practitioners to understand that if one met Buddha (found enlightenment) on the road (in their practice), then one should kill him (disregard what they think is enlightenment because it is just an illusion that one will get attached to.) I had suddenly found a different use for it. The Koan reminded me that the problem is not whether or not the person needs to die; The problem is in whatever is making us decide to kill. Anyone who thinks that killing is the wise thing to do, may want to meditate on the koan to understand that killing is an illusion of the right or wise thing to do. And to the person who needs to kill in self defense - they are just killing the Buddha they meet on their path.