Michael Peletz is an anthropology professor at Emory University in Atlanta. He is an expert on Islam and politics in Malaysia, Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia.

Read a June 29, 2013, story from The New York Times about Texas’ record of executed inmates’ last words. The state, with the highest number of executions in the U.S., keeps an online database of the executed’s last words.

Kevin Hasson is chairman and president of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. Contact through Tom Carter.

The James Madison Center for Free Speech supports litigation and education activities on behalf of free speech. Along with the Alliance Defense Fund, the center has offered to give churches and clergy free advice and legal opinion letters about allowable political activities. James Bopp Jr. is the center’s general counsel.

Nathan Brown is a professor of political science and international affairs and director of the Institute for Middle East Studies at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He is an expert on government and politics of the Middle East, democratization and constitutionalism, and the rule of law in the Arab world.

Michael F. Noone Jr. is Research Ordinary Professor in the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He was a judge advocate for 20 years in the Air Force and is frequently quoted on matters of military and the law.

Mark A. Costanzo is a psychology professor at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, Calif. He is an expert on the death penalty, nonverbal communication, expert testimony and social psychology. He wrote Just Revenge: Costs and Consequences of the Death Penalty.

Defense lawyer Gregory J. Kuykendall specializes in capital cases and wrote about the politics of death sentencing in Arizona. He is also lead death penalty counsel to the Mexican Foreign Ministry.

John D. Carlson is associate professor of religious studies at Arizona State University. His books include, as co-editor, Religion and the Death Penalty: A Call for Reckoning. His work focuses on religion, ethics and politics.