An Impassioned Debate: An Overview of the Death Penalty in America
   The history of the death penalty
   The death penalty worldwide
   strongly as the debate over capital punishment. Religious communities
   life. The debate over the death penalty has been complicated in recent
   An overview of the death penalty in America.
   The Death Penalty and the Supreme Court
   Public Opinion on the Death Penalty
   Americans continue to support the death penalty.
   Religious Groups’ Official Positions on the Death Penalty
   A breakdown of 16 major religious groups’ views on the death penalty.
   Death Penalty Timeline
   The debate over capital punishment has been heating up, prompted by two
   that have death penalty statutes does not violate the U.S.
   challenge to a statute that allows the imposition of capital punishment
   the ground that the death penalty is an unconstitutionally severe
   Supreme Court Considers New Case on Capital Punishment.)
   states with death penalty statutes. Indeed, merely agreeing to hear the
   Opponents’ desire to end capital punishment is driven by different
   opponents of the death penalty contend that it does not deter violent
   Many supporters of capital punishment, on the other hand, believe some
   statistical studies that they say show that capital punishment, even
   Death penalty supporters also point out that a solid majority of the
   American people have long favored the use of capital punishment. Recent
   support for the death penalty reached its peak in the late 1980s and
   Today, 62 percent of the public supports capital punishment for people
   against the death penalty, not all religious bodies oppose its use.
   (See Religious Groups’ Official Positions on Capital Punishment.) For
   oppose capital punishment, many evangelical churches, including
   Southern Baptists, support the death penalty.
   While capital punishment laws in the U.S. fall under the states’
   of the death penalty in this country. In the 1930s, for example, the
   high court ruled 5-4 that the death penalty, as it was being applied at
   the opinions was that existing state death penalty statutes were too
   the sentencing phase in capital punishment cases were too vague and
   As a result of the Furman decision, all death penalty statutes were
   essentially invalidated all death penalty statutes, it did not rule
   that capital punishment itself was unconstitutional. As a result, many
   death penalty statutes, many thought it was a question of when, rather
   the death penalty when someone was convicted of first-degree murder.
   juries to determine whether the death penalty is appropriate.
   that have imposed new limits on capital punishment. In Atkins v.
   Roper v. Simmons, the court barred the use of the death penalty for
   states that currently have death penalty statutes; only Nebraska still
   precedents upholding the death penalty. Indeed, in his concurring
   for the abolition of capital punishment in the United States.
   moratorium on capital punishment – in force since late 2007 – has
   death row inmates and death penalty opponents to challenge lethal
   injection or other methods of capital punishment on Eighth Amendment
   The Supreme Court’s most recent death penalty case has its roots in a
   the death penalty is a proportional punishment for child rape.
   Because only six states currently authorize the death penalty for child
   generally agree that the death penalty should not apply to child rape.
   the death penalty should be reserved for cases involving the death of
   Eighth Amendment permits states to create “new capital punishment
   that have statutes permitting the death penalty for child rape. These
   trend in the court’s death penalty jurisprudence. Over the last few
   years, when the court has sided with opponents of the death penalty,
   ineligible for the death penalty, such as child rapists in the Kennedy
   Roper. These cases suggest that for the opponents of the death penalty
The History of the Death Penalty
   Capital punishment has a long and nearly uninterrupted history in the
   The movement to abolish capital punishment has an equally long history.
   limit, the use of the death penalty. And, in spite of general support
   capital punishment. In the ensuing 160 years, 12 other states and the
   instance, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, there were
   once again employ the death penalty.
   abolishing the death penalty, making the Garden State the first and so
   far only one to repeal a capital punishment law since the 1976
   Opposition to the death penalty also has helped to change the way
   A recent source of opposition to the death penalty has come from many
The Death Penalty Worldwide
   to use the death penalty, but few industrialized countries still employ
   United States, Japan and South Korea still use capital punishment. No
   that still have death penalty laws on the books, including Russia and
   In Europe and elsewhere, the worldwide abolition of the death penalty
   Supreme Court rules that capital punishment is unconstitutional, which
   the debate over the death penalty itself also will go on, as both
     * The History of the Death Penalty
     * The Death Penalty Worldwide