With Arizona’s execution of convicted murderer Joseph Rudolph Wood III on July 23, 2014, the question of the morality of the death penalty has again come to the fore. Some of those who witnessed the execution said Wood took more than 90 minutes to die and was gasping throughout. Others said the inmate seemed to die snoring peacefully.

Most Americans say they support the death penalty. Sixty-one percent view the death penalty as morally acceptable, according to a May 2014 Gallup poll, and only once has that figure dipped below 60 percent in the last 13 years. But that consistency can mask a simmering national debate about the efficacy, morality and even legitimacy of the death penalty — a debate that frequently and increasingly involves religious groups and religious people.

This edition of ReligionLink examines the death penalty through a religious and moral lens in the light of current law and recently "botched" executions.