The Campaign to End the Death Penalty is a Chicago-based group that describes itself as “the only national membership-driven, chapter-based grassroots organization dedicated to the abolition of capital punishment in the United States.”

Amnesty International USA describes itself as “a global movement of people fighting injustice and promoting human rights.” It works in a wide variety of issues, including LGBTQ rights, education, poverty and prison rights.

The Death Penalty Information Center opposes capital punishment and tracks recent developments as well as legislation on the death penalty. Richard Dieter is executive director. Contact through Anne Holsinger.

The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty is a network of more than 100 organizations dedicated to abolishing the death penalty state by state. Diann Rust-Tierney is executive director.

The Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, based in Sacramento, Calif., is a nonprofit organization whose purpose is “to assure that people who are guilty of committing crimes receive swift and certain punishment in an orderly and constitutional manner.” Michael Rushford is president, and Kent Scheidegger is legal director/general counsel.

Justice For All is a victims’ rights and criminal justice organization that focuses on reducing and prosecuting homicide cases based in Houston. The organization maintains Pro-Death Penalty, a resource site that lists information about victims, and MurderVictims.com.

Read an essay about Islam and the death penalty written by Aslam Abdullah and posted by Beliefnet.com.

Read an April 1, 2004, essay published on the Orthodox Union’s website about the split opinion on the death penalty in the Jewish community.

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.