The verdict of guilty brought in against the psychopath who slew 11 congregants at the Tree of Life synagogue at Pittsburgh is a moment to think about a bloody Sanhedrin. That is the phrase connoting the religious court from biblical times that was prepared to hand down a capital sentence as often as once every seven, or, some say, 70 years. It reflects the reluctance in Jewish law to mete out a sentence of death in all but the rarest of cases.