Christian attitudes towards the death penalty GapFill

 CorporalIncarceratedCapitalConviction punishment is another term for the death penalty. This is a form of punishment in which the state takes away the life of an individual who has been convicted of a specific crime. This is a serious punishment which is usually reserved for truly heinous crimes, such as  divorcemurderembezzlementpetty theft. It is now not a practice which is used as a method of punishment in the  Dominican RepublicUAEUSUK; however, it has been previously used in this country as a method of punishment for serious crimes such as murder. It is now   practisedillegallegalused in the United Kingdom – and has been since 1998. In the countries in which it is used, there are a variety of different methods of execution. For example, the favoured option in the American states which still have the death penalty is the method of death by  firing squadpoisoninglethal injectionstoning, which is the administering of a cocktail of drugs designed to sedate the prisoner, paralyse their limbs and finally stop the heart. This is considered by some to be the most humane method of administering the death penalty. The other option for the death penalty in the US is death by  electric chairradioactive chairdecapitationgassing, which kills when an individual is strapped to a chair and electric currents are administered, which kill the inmate. This is considered to be more painful than lethal injection and, therefore, generally, those facing the death penalty will choose to be killed by lethal injection. 

Some Christians consider the death penalty to be  justidealthe only optionperfect because of the biblical Old Testament teaching that states  a foot for a foota leg for a legan arm for an arman eye for an eye. However, other Christians stress the importance of forgiveness rather than sentencing someone to the death penalty.