Christian Perspective on the Death Penalty in the US

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0:00 Matthew’s theological perspective on criminal justice

5:28 Loving the criminal offender

8:10 25 years for an ounce-and-a-half of marijuana?

14:59 Christianity and the legal use of force

20:39 Matthew: I cannot enter the public square without considering my faith

24:48 Determining justice in a fallen world

29:35 What’s wrong with criminal justice today?

31:48 The problem of prosecutorial immunity

38:43 Matthew’s take on George Floyd

43:16 Has the criminal justice system truly reformed itself on race matters?

50:00 The denial of bail and the denial of justice

56:37 Matthew: We don’t have quick, accurate, reliable verdicts

1:02:41 Why Matthew opposes the death penalty “as currently practiced in the United States”

1:08:21 How ordinary Americans can help

Recorded February 28, 2024

Links and Readings

Matthew’s book, Reforming Criminal Justice: A Christian Proposal

Richard John Neuhaus’s book, The Naked Public Square: Religion and Democracy in America

Philip Gorski, American Covenant: A History of Civil Religion from the Puritans to the Present

National Register of Exonerations

St. Irenaeus’s Against Heresies

Kellen Funk and Sandra Mayson’s Harvard Law Review article, “Bail at the Founding”

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