Ed Stoddard of Reuters examines the enthusiasm of Evangelicals for the death penalty. His take:
“In Texas you have all the elements lined up. Public support, a governor that supports it and supportive courts,” said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.
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Like his predecessor, Governor Perry is a devout Christian, highlighting one key factor in Texas’ enthusiasm for the death penalty that many outsiders find puzzling — the support it gets from conservative evangelical churches.
This is in line with their emphasis on individuals taking responsibility for their own salvation, and they also find justification in scripture.
“A lot of evangelical Protestants not only believe that capital punishment is permissible but that it is demanded by God. And they see sanction for that in the Old Testament especially,” said Matthew Wilson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
Texas also stands at an unusual geographical and cultural crossroads: part Old South, with its legacy of racism, and part Old West, with a cowboy sense of rough justice.
Some critics say the South can be seen in the racial bias of death sentences with blacks more likely than whites to be condemned — though Texas is not alone on this score.
Over 41 percent of the inmates currently on death row in Texas are black, but they account for only about 12 percent of the state’s population.
Meanwhile, for some in Texas the death penalty is about the victim.
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“Demographics could change things as minority groups like Latinos are generally less enthusiastic about the death penalty,” said Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center.
Read it here.