On one side were those who favored immediate execution. On the other side there are those who oppose the death penalty all together. To kill or not to kill that is the question. (Robert V. Wolf 1997). .
Christians remain deeply involved on both sides of the issue, drawing on the biblical teachings and traditions that define justice and the dignity of human life. The debate over the death penalty has been a growing controversy because of serious concerns like the fairness of the criminal justice system, the role of doctors in carrying out executions, and the possibility of reform and rehabilitation among death row inmates. .
Thirty-five states in the United States still use the death penalty as a form of punishment. These states include Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming. Of these states, Texas has had the highest number of inmates executed. As of December 31, 2011 there were 58 women on death row. .
In the past 100 years, over 40 women have been executed in the U.S. A recent study by Professor Steven Shatz of the University of San Francisco Law School and Naomi Shatz of the New York Civil Liberties Union suggests that gender bias continues to exist in the application of the death penalty, and that this bias has roots in the historic notion of chivalry. .
In a review of 1,300 murder cases in California between 2003 and 2005, the authors found gender disproportions with respect to both defendants and victims in the primary crime. (Shatz, 2011) The authors concluded: "The present study confirms what earlier studies have shown: that the death penalty is imposed on women relatively infrequently and that it is disproportionately imposed for the killing of women.
