A new book by Dale Recinella, The Biblical Truth About America’s Death Penalty, analyzes capital punishment through an examination of religious texts and teachings. Using sources such as the Torah, the Talmud, and the Bible, Recinella outlines what biblical texts say regarding who is deserving of the death penalty and who is granted the authority to impose such a sentence. While exploring issues such as innocence, race, mental capacity, and prosecutorial misconduct, Recinella weaves biblical texts with current case examples to conclude that: “People of biblical faith must abolish the American death penalty, and we must do so in our time. Moratorium is a way of stopping the practice while others of biblical faith become educated to the biblical truth, a truth that demands nothing less than abolition.” Recinella is an attorney who serves as a spiritual counselor and Catholic lay chaplain for Florida’s prison system, ministering to death row inmates and prisoners in long-term solitary confinement. (Northeastern University Press, 2004). See Resources.

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