Research

Religion

Leaders and organizations representing a variety of faiths have taken stances on the death penalty, often tying their views to beliefs about human dignity, retribution, and redemption.

Overview

Religious denom­i­na­tions in the U.S. have fre­quent­ly made state­ments about the death penal­ty, some­times point­ing out con­cerns about its appli­ca­tion, and oth­er times judg­ing the moral­i­ty of the pun­ish­ment itself. Historically, most major reli­gious bod­ies allowed for the use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, but crit­i­cism of the prac­tice has great­ly increased in recent times.
 

At Issue

In a diverse democ­ra­cy, no sin­gle reli­gious point of view occu­pies a priv­i­leged posi­tion in the fram­ing of law. Nevertheless, the prin­ci­ples of var­i­ous com­mu­ni­ties of faith are rel­e­vant in the polit­i­cal debate because they help inform the views of their respec­tive con­stituents and reflect the ​“evolv­ing stan­dards of decen­cy” that are vital to the Supreme Court’s inter­pre­ta­tion of the Eighth Amendment.

What DPIC Offers

DPIC pro­vides a com­pi­la­tion of state­ments about the death penal­ty from a broad array of reli­gious denom­i­na­tions. DPIC occa­sion­al­ly high­lights the views of those speak­ing from a faith per­spec­tive when the com­ments relate to a case or con­tro­ver­sy involv­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Finally, it fea­tures the results of death penal­ty polls when bro­ken down by particular faiths.

News & Developments

News

Mar 24, 2025

Four Executions in Three Days Spotlight Constitutional Concerns About Death Penalty

In a three-day span from March 18 to March 20, four men were exe­cut­ed in four dif­fer­ent states. Two of the men put to death, in Louisiana and Arizona, were the first exe­cut­ed in their state in years. While the close tim­ing of the exe­cu­tions result­ed from inde­pen­dent state-lev­­el deci­sions and indi­vid­u­al­ized legal devel­op­ments rather than any coor­di­nat­ed nation­al effort, all four exe­cu­tions raised seri­ous con­sti­tu­tion­al con­cerns. ### March 18: Jessie Hoffman (LA) On…

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News

Mar 11, 2025

Former Chair of Oklahoma Board of Pardons and Parole Speaks Out Against the Death Penalty as Pending Moratorium Bills Gain Support in Legislature

Adam Luck (pic­tured), the for­mer Chairman of Oklahoma’s Board of Pardons and Parole and for­mer mem­ber of the Oklahoma Board of Corrections, is now speak­ing out against the death penal­ty in Oklahoma. Explaining his change of heart, Mr. Luck cites to his first-hand expe­ri­ence with flaws in Oklahoma’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem, includ­ing botched exe­cu­tions, and his deep Christian faith.​“Having the unique expe­ri­ence of vot­ing on the life of anoth­er human being forced me to…

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News

Dec 17, 2024

Indiana’s First Execution in 15 Years Raises Serious Constitutional Concerns

If Joseph Corcoran had been sen­tenced to death just a few miles to the east, across the bor­der in Ohio instead of in Fort Wayne, Indiana, it’s like­ly that a court would have barred his exe­cu­tion. Ohio law pre­vents a per­son with a seri­ous men­tal ill­ness (SMI) at the time of their crime, defined as schiz­o­phre­nia, schizoaf­fec­tive dis­or­der, bipo­lar dis­or­der, or delu­sion­al dis­or­der, from being put to death. Mr. Corcoran, who has a long his­to­ry of paranoid…

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News

Nov 12, 2024

New Trial Granted for Texas Death-Sentenced Prisoner Because of Trial Judge’s Antisemitic Bias

On November 6, 2024, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) vot­ed 6 – 3 to grant death-sen­­tenced pris­on­er Randy Halprin a new tri­al. The TCCA decid­ed that the orig­i­nal tri­al judge, Vickers Cunningham,​“was actu­al­ly biased against him at the time of tri­al because Halprin is Jewish.” The Court wrote in its rul­ing that the​“uncon­tra­dict­ed evi­dence,” includ­ing tes­ti­mo­ny from friends and fam­i­ly of Judge Cunningham regard­ing his use of deroga­to­ry and racial slurs…

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