The Biblical Truth about America's Death Penalty

October 15, 2004
Recinella, a lawyer rather than a professional scholar of the Judeo-Christian scriptures, tackles the topic of the abolition of the death penalty based on his reading of the Bible. His intention is to convince conservative Christians that the imposition of the death penalty cannot be supported by the Bible. Although his position against the death penalty is laudatory, he is unable to make much of an argument from the Bible to support it. The Hebrew scripture clearly allows the death penalty for a wide range of offenses. The Christian scripture seems to be more forgiving, but only because its writers expected a revolutionary new social and civil order soon to replace the corrupt society in which they lived. The Christian doctrine of the sacrificial death of Jesus to atone for all the sins of humankind might be used to argue against capital punishment, since it was the last one to be imposed, but it is doubtful that such an argument will convince many conservative Christians to abandon the death penalty. An appendix to the book contains a policy statement by the Southern Baptist Convention that makes this very point. Recommended for large academic libraries.-James A. Overbeck, Atlanta-Fulton Cty. Lib.

Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2004
A longtime supporter of the death penalty, Recinella underwent a radical change of heart when a colleague asked him to step out of his legal specialty to help with a murder case. That experience launched a lengthy investigation during which Recinella uncovered damning evidence that American courts administer the death penalty in ways deeply at odds with the biblical faith Americans often invoke to justify it. In the first place, Recinella shows, Americans often quote the Bible's eye-for-an-eye verses without understanding the scriptural and Talmudic context that defined the offenses meriting death. Scripture-quoting advocates of the death penalty abound in America's Bible Belt (where a disproportionate number of executions occur), but Recinella concludes that these fervent religionists have attended little to the scriptural insistence on strict equity in administering capital punishment. What reading of sacred writ, Recinella asks, can possibly justify the punitive imbalance that puts so many poor blacks on death row? Some readers will resist the author's call for a moratorium or outright ban on executions, but this book will greatly enrich the national debate over the issues.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)