Executing Grace, by Shane Claiborne

No one likes the death penalty.  Some see it as a necessary evil or a critical component of justice, but no one (perhaps apart from sociopaths) likes it.  In light of the continued use of the death penalty in the U.S., Shane Claiborne has written Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us.

Claiborne, a death penalty abolitionist, is strongest when he personalizes the death penalty, which is what he spends most of the book doing.  When we see people on death row as people, like Claiborne does, anyone's enthusiasm for killing them diminishes.  Claiborne also talks about the people who work in the prisons.  Many of them testify about how difficult it is to participate in the execution of someone whom they have come to know personally over their weeks and months living on death row.  Many former prison workers have become death row abolitionists.

The most powerful stories are the stories of forgiveness.  Claiborne tells story after story of friendships that spring up between the families of the condemned and victims' families and, in some cases between the families of murder victims and their convicted killers.  The example of Jesus and the New Testament demands no less from us.  We are to forgive and to pray for redemption.  Even a convicted murderer has the potential to become a follower of Jesus. 

Claiborne's target audience is Christians who defend the use of the death penalty.  As he points out, the death penalty is used most in the south, where Christian influence tends to be strongest.  And Christians have long defended the death penalty as a reflection of biblical justice.  He makes a strong argument, but he leans far to the emotional side, and spends much less time on questions like deterrence.  Even so, I'm not sure any practical arguments can counter questions like racism in the application of the death penalty, the rate of mistakes (where an innocent person is convicted), and the scriptural calls for forgiveness and reconciliation.  If you are in favor of the death penalty, Executing Grace will force you to reconsider.


Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!