Sallie B. King is a professor of philosophy and religion at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va. A specialist in Buddhism, she has written extensively about engaged Buddhism, the activist and peacemaking branch of contemporary Buddhism. Major publications include Being Benevolence: The Social Ethics of Engaged Buddhism and Engaged Buddhism: Buddhist Liberation Movements in Asia, […]

Joseph J. Fahey was a professor of religious studies at Manhattan College in Riverdale, N.Y. He specializes in Christian social ethics and peace studies, and his publications include War and the Christian Conscience: Where Do You Stand?

Pew held a January 2002 conference on the death penalty that included reflections from a variety of faith traditions. The essays were collected into a volume, Religion and the Death Penalty: A Call for Reckoning. The volume has the writings of 21 contributors representing a range of religious traditions.

Read a series of exchanges from October 2011 at The Public Discourse, a politically conservative site, between Christopher O. Tollefsen and Edward Feser, arguing over whether capital punishment is morally wrong or justifiable in some cases.

Read a roundup of the positions of various religious groups and denominations on capital punishment, posted by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Read a July 11, 2013, news article about the possibility of death sentence for a man who kidnapped and held three women captive in his Ohio home.

Read a July 9, 2013, opinion piece by professor of theology Robert Olson arguing that churches should do more to oppose capital punishment.

The Sept. 21, 2011, execution of Troy Davis drew international condemnation because of questions about the case, and it sparked a national debate. Read a Sept. 11, 2001, article published on ABCNews.com about the execution.

In September 2011, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told an audience at Duquesne University Law School, “If I thought that Catholic doctrine held the death penalty to be immoral, I would resign.” That statement prompted criticism that Scalia, one of six Catholics on the high court, was misinterpreting Catholic teaching against capital punishment. Read this Sept. 25, […]