The Biblical Truth about America's Death Penalty
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.Bryce ChristensenCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.