For more detailed information on legal developments in the death penalty in America, see a timeline by the Clark County, Ind., prosecuting attorney’s office.

Tamara Cohn Eskenazi is co-editor of The Torah: A Women’s Commentary and a professor of Bible at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles.

In December 2012, the Death Penalty Information Center, a leading advocacy group against capital punishment, released its annual study, which showed that the number of executions stayed the same between 2011 and 2012 — 43 each year.

The number of judges dissenting — often strongly — from death penalty rulings is increasing, according to this Aug. 13, 2009, story in The New York Times.

In 2009, New Mexico joined the list of states no longer using capital punishment. Gov. Bill Richardson signed legislation in March repealing the state’s death penalty and replacing it with a maximum sentence of life without parole. This March 18, 2009, CNN story gives the details.

The case of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed by Texas in 2004 for setting a fire that killed his three daughters, was re-examined in light of assertions that Willingham may have been innocent and that evidence was overlooked by the authorities. A 2009 investigation by the Texas Forensic Science Commission found the claims that […]

The Rev. Sharon Watkins is general minister and president of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), a mainline Protestant denomination.

Gallup publishes an annual survey each October on attitudes toward the death penalty. The January 2013 survey shows the consistency of general support for capital punishment: 63 percent in favor of the death penalty. The poll also shows Republicans and Independents are much more likely to support the death penalty than Democrats. But when given the choice […]

The Rev. Julie Pennington-Russell is senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Decatur, Ga. A megachurch, it is the largest woman-led church affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, whose Faith and Message statement states, “While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by […]