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Religion and Capital Punishment in the United States
Author(s) -
Santoro Anthony
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
religion compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.113
H-Index - 1
ISSN - 1749-8171
DOI - 10.1111/rec3.12105
Subject(s) - capital punishment , statute , opposition (politics) , historiography , punishment (psychology) , criminology , colonialism , capital (architecture) , criminal law , law , psychology , political science , sociology , social psychology , history , politics , archaeology
Religion and the death penalty have long been linked in the United States, from colonial establishments that used biblical law as one basis for criminal statutes to the contemporary use of religion to support or oppose executions. This article begins by analyzing the literature on these links at the most abstract before using religiously motivated opposition to capital punishment to survey the history and historiography on the subject. It then looks at how religious institutions engage the issue before bringing the discussion into the courtroom to look at how religion impacts the legal process and how this has been studied. The article concludes by suggesting some avenues for future research.