“You can’t reconcile being pro-life on abortion and pro-death on the death penalty.”
-N.T. Wright
When I first read this quote I was excited. Really excited. For two reasons: (1) I am against the death penalty – for the most part – and (2) I love N.T.Wright.
Personally, I am not a fan of the government having the power to kill the citizens of their countries. Regardless, there are certain circumstances when the government ought to be able to exact the death penalty: first, the death penalty should be exacted if and only if the crime committed is deserving of death (you can get into some tricky ground there), and second, if and only if absolute evidence can be produced by the prosecution (i.e. clear video or DNA evidence, etc.).
Anyways, back to the quote. I think, as conservatives who value life above all other rights, we should consider the apparent discontinuity between our vehement opposition of abortion – and rightfully so – and our upholding of capitol punishment. There is an obvious retort to this: unborn babies are innocent, and those sentenced to death are not! Of course. I agree with this. Yet if we uphold life as the highest value, we should strive to preserve it at all costs. No, this does not warrant pacifism; but it does call us to avoid killing people if at all possible. There are obviously ways to do so regarding crime: life in prison, with or without parole, maybe even solitary-confinement, etc. Maybe even instilling cruel and unusual punishment would deter soon-to-be-criminals from committing crimes worthy of such a sentence… Okay, just kidding… Don’t do that.
Death is terrible. Death is a monster. It truly is, and inflicting it upon another ought to be avoided at all costs. Of course, self-defense and war are times where killing is warranted, but over all, it should be shunned. Abortion should be outlawed immediately along with the death penalty, if it doesn’t meet the requirements listed above.
Just a few scribblings. Feel free to comment your thoughts.
In Christ,
Lucas.
Lucas Kelly 
After a fair amount of reflection, I’ve found myself at the position that the Bible permits the death penalty as a power available to civil government and that there are crimes very much deserving of it. I also believe that Christians should be wholeheartedly against it. The reason being is that the essence of the shift from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant was that the OC demonstrated exactly what mankind deserves while the NC says that we don’t have to receive it. The crux of Christianity is that we get better than what we deserve because of the mercy of God; we’re called to give the same mercy that we’ve received. Criminals may deserve the death penalty but, before God, so do we. We can’t call for criminals to receive the death penalty because they deserve it unless we’re prepared for God to treat us the same way on Judgement Day. That is not to say that we can’t have a justice system at all, but the focus of Christian justice should be the protection of the community, not exacting retribution on the offender, and that can easily be done without the death penalty.
Well said.