We can understand why victims' families would look to the death penalty as a justifiable punishment for convicted terrorists, but we feel that it is wrong to take a life. If any good can come out of the disaster of Sept. 11, perhaps it will include examination of how we can maintain our humanity in the face of terrorists' threats.
-- Orlando and Phyllis Rodriguez, whose son Greg died in the terrorist attacks on September 11, from a letter to the
New York Times.
Capital punishment is one part of an effective criminal justice policy that our lawmakers have provided to Texas juries, and I support it for violent criminals who commit heinous crimes.
-- George W. Bush during his tenure as Governor of Texas, in a letter dated July 25, 2000
Recent
News |
Current Articles |
Faith Group Responses | Additional
resources
Recent News
High
court declines to overturn death sentences
June 25, 2004-- The decision in an Arizona death-penalty case
means inmates are not automatically entitled to new sentencing
hearings. more...
New
safeguards aim to save a flawed system
May 7, 2004-- What would a foolproof death penalty look like?
A Massachusetts Governor's Council thinks it knows. more...
Death
sentences by judges: Should they be thrown out?
April 19, 2004-- The Supreme Court will consider whether a 2002
death-penalty ruling should be applied retroactively. more...
High
court ruling slows executions in Texas
February 11, 2004-- Two mentally retarded death-row inmates
avoid execution as state struggles to apply federal decision.
more...
When
do trial lapses void a death sentence?
December 8, 2003-- The Supreme Court considers what violates
standards of fairness. more...
Sniper
case revisits juvenile death penalty
November 21, 2003-- Opponents of capital punishment for teens
appear to be gaining ground. more...
Discussing
the morality of capital punishment
November 12, 2003-- Excerpts of the Monitor's interviews with
authors Scott Turow and Mark Fuhrman. more...
Can
you build a foolproof death penalty?
November 5, 2003-- Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney asks panel to explore
its reinstating capital punishment. more...
Judicial
rarity: death penalty in a rape case
September 8, 2003-- Louisiana law on child rape revives debate
over penalty in nonmurder cases. more...
Death-Penalty
Mistakes
September 8, 2003-- But capital punishment will always be wrong,
no matter how extensive its reforms. more...
Despite
reprieves, 3,500 still on death row in the US
September 4, 2003-- Recent trends may reflect Americans' ambivalence
about a penalty that most still believe in but are more hesitant
to inflict. more...
Grace
encountered during visit to death row
May 13, 2003-- David Skidmore takes a look into what the death
penalty really entails. more...
Maryland's
Death Penalty
May 9, 2003-- Decision time, as the state assembly tackles an
array of legislation that could alter or ultimately abolish
the death penalty in Maryland. more...
| FaithandValues.com SHOPPING |
 The Executed God: The Way of the Cross in Lockdown America
by Mark Lewis Taylor
As more Christians begin taking stands on the justice system, some are critiquing it as an "injustice" system. In The Executed God: The Way of the Cross in Lockdown America, Princeton Theological Seminary professor Mark Lewis Taylor attacks U.S. prisons as racist and unjust. Buy it |
New
standard for race on death-row juries
February 26, 2003-- A court ruling Tuesday will force judges
to look more closely at bias in jury selection. more...
US
death penalty creates international snarl
February 24, 2003-- In battle over whose law prevails, Texas
bucks World Court order staying executions. more...
Florida
fights over death-row lawyers
February 20, 2003-- Jeb Bush's proposed budget seeks
to speed up executions by privatizing the capital-appeals process.
more...
Court
upholds 'double jeopardy' death sentence
January 15, 2003-- Supreme Court rules that a life-sentence
prisoner can be put to death after a retrial jury calls for
death penalty. more...
Big
setback, and new ire, on death penalty
January 13, 2003-- Most Americans still believe in the death
penalty. But a rising number of them are asking: Is it used
fairly? more...
'We
are throwing people away,' Sister Prejean tells prison ministry
conference
November 5, 2002 (ENS) -- Conferees attending the Prison Ministry
Task Force Conference entitled "Out of Darkness into Light,"
held October 17-18 in Baltimore, were challenged to confront
their legislators and representatives with facts about the death
penalty. more...
Should
death penalty apply to 16-year-olds?
October 31, 2002 -- Florida votes on the issue, while capital
punishment for juveniles draws attention in the sniper case.
more...
Prosecutors
race to try sniper suspects first
October 30, 2002 -- Key factors: implementation of death penalty
and desire for political clout. more...
Florida
death-penalty battle rages over sentencing
September 13, 2002 -- A legal fight over who determines capital
penalties could impact many states. more...
Three
justices question execution of minors
August 30, 2002 - Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg
and Stephen Breyer issued statements before Toronto Patterson,
24, was put to death in Huntsville, Texas, by lethal injection.
more...
Death
penalty for juveniles under scrutiny
August 27, 2002 - Texas is scheduled to execute the third person
in four months for a crime committed under age 18.
Federal
death penalty overturned
July 1, 2002 - A U.S. district judge in New York ruled the federal
death penalty unconstitutional Monday, saying it violates the
due process rights of defendants and that innocent people have
been put to death. more...
Death-penalty
ruling's effect: new laws, trials
June 27, 2002 - Just after a Denver jury pronounced Abraham Hagos guilty of
murder in April, the defendant jumped over a table and attacked the prosecutor. more...
Court
rules on death penalty
June 25, 2002 – State judges may no longer make the key determination between
life and death in capital-punishment cases without violating constitutional
safeguards. more...
Chipping
away at the death penalty
June 25, 2002 – Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, a staunch opponent of
capital punishment, once famously said, "I no longer shall tinker with the
machinery of death."
more...
Court bars
executing retarded
June 21, 2002 - The United States has reached a collective moral judgment that
mentally retarded individuals should not face the death penalty.
more...
Execution
for juvenile crime: legal but controversial
Feb. 19, 2002 - When Alexander Williams' mom testified at her son's trial, she
recalled that he liked to read comic books. His girlfriend remembered that he
was nice to her when they went roller skating.
more...
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Current Articles
Humans
Playing God
Capital Punishment and Its Follies
A few months before the birth of Israel, my family lost our
ancestral home in the village of Kanjrur-Duttan, a village where
Duttas had lived since the time of Emperor Babar. Kanjrur-Duttan
happened to be on the wrong side of the line when India was
divided in two (Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan) by British
colonialists. more...
Jesus'
Path to Restoring Justice
"Authorities found the outside agitator guilty of the charge
(He stirs up the people throughout all [the land]... even to
this place. Luke 23:5) and sentenced him to death with no appeal."
-- Incarceration, capital punishment and justice are the
issues discussed in David Wildman's Bible study with the focus
on the execution of Jesus. more...
Is the Death Penalty an Effective Deterrent?
One of the unfortunate things about the death penalty is that it hasn't been a deterrent to violent crime, but it has been a deterrent to discussions about meaningful responses to violent crime. Right now, anytime anybody talks about violent crime, elected politicians say "death penalty."
more ...
101
Reasons to Abandon the Death Penalty
The recent announcement that at least 100 people have now been exonerated and released from death row in the United States, since 1973, is a sobering milestone. Along with this announcement, the new report from the Illinois Governor's Commission on Capital Punishment outlining more than 80 necessary measures to make death penalty cases more fair and less likely to lead to the execution of innocent people is yet another sign that our nation should turn away from the death penalty.
more...
Time to
address death penalty, SBC resolutions chairman says
Messengers to the 2000 meeting voted by an overwhelming margin June 14 in favor of a resolution supporting capital punishment. The resolution affirms the use of capital punishment "by civil magistrates as a legitimate form of punishment for those guilty of murder or treasonous acts that result in death."
more...
Why We Oppose the Death
Penalty
Most criticism of the death penalty focuses on how it affects the person on death row. Our concern is how the death penalty affects the rest of us in society. Our opposition to the death penalty is rooted in our direct experience of loss and our refusal to respond to that loss with a quest for more killing. Executions are not what will help us heal.
More from Murder Victims' Families
for Reconciliation
Journey
Toward Forgiveness
Two stories from the documentary "Journey Toward Forgiveness" produced for the National Council of Churches by Mennonite Media.
My
Father Didn't Want the Death Penalty for his Murderer
Why
I Forgave My Grandmother's Murderer
The Role of Race and the Death Penalty
For over 200 years the death penalty was specifically prescribed based on the race of the defendant and the race of the victim. That is, in Alabama, it was a mandatory death penalty offense if a black person was convicted of raping a white person. If a white person was convicted of raping a black person, then the most a person could be punished was one year in prison.
more...
Mother prays to spare daughter's killer
A vigil for healing and reconciliation at Grace Episcopal Church in Radford, Va., requested by the mother of a murdered teenage girl, could help spare the life of the man convicted of her killing.
more...
I Watched the State Kill my Friend
Just after midnight on Wednesday, Sept. 24, 1997, the state of Missouri put Samuel McDonald to death by lethal injection. That night I was inside the Potosi Correctional Institute to witness the killing. How I ended up there has to do with friendship.
more...
Vigil at Terre Haute
I didn't really want to be there. Going to Terre Haute to participate in the protest and prayer vigil for the execution of Timothy McVeigh was something that I wanted no part of. I sensed that there would be a circus atmosphere, that media attention would be intense.
more...
Death penalty biblical, not vengeful, Southern Seminary's Moore says
Public support for the death penalty isn't vengeful, it's biblical, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary's Russell Moore said Nov. 5 on the television show "Kentucky Tonight."
more...
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Faith Group
Responses
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Additional resources
The following Web sites contain additional information about the death penalty.
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