Capital Punishment

Why tackle the death penalty?

We can’t escape the fact that we’re living in a violent society. News headlines and TV shows remind us of this daily. How does a Christian respond to this violence, especially when it happens to a loved one?

Who’s Who

The material on this page has been condensed from interviews gathered during the production of the video Beyond the News: Murder Close Up.  The video has been re-edited onto DVD and is now titled Beyond the News: The Death Penalty.   Interviewed were:

  • Bryan Stevenson, an attorney who works with Equal Justice Initiative with much experience in capital punishment cases over many years.
  • Helen Prejean, CSJ, the author of Dead Man Walking, the book which inspired the movie of the same name. She has written and spoken extensively on the death penalty issue throughout the U.S.
  • Howard Zehr, a Mennonite writer and photographer, and world-known consultant on criminal justice and restorative justice issues. He has been active in developing Victim Offender Reconciliation programs in many communities. Howard’s book, Death as a Penalty, delves deeper into the issues of capital punishment. Doing Life: Reflections of Men and Women Serving Life Sentences is a collection of portraits and invterviews with men and women serving life sentences. His book Changing Lenses: Restorative Justice for Our Times was re-released in 2015 in a 25th anniversary edition, and has been used as a heralded textbook in this field.

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