the death penalty and religion

     I have read a lot of different arguments both for and against the death penalty over the last thirty years. The one argument I find insupportable is the religious conviction that we, as a state, are acting out the will of God, or instituting divine justice of some kind, through the execution of criminals. I, as one of "we the people", do not consider myself a god, or an agent of God. I do not believe in the Jungian "oversoul" God--the God made up of all the people together. Although I am not a Christian, the "pot cannot be greater than the potter" certainly should have warned any Christian away from this view. If God is the creative force behind all the life in the universe, that God does not reside in the minds or the sex of human kind, except to the extent that it has created humankind.
     The religious view of the death penalty also denies the redemptive power of God--and I do believe in redemption. For a Christian, it also denies the redemptive power of Jesus--something I though all Christians believed. I believe that any human being can be redeemed at any time, although I do not belong to a religion that requires this belief of me. I believe it because I have seen it, and I know that it is possible.
     If this argument is based on a tenet of faith, those making the argument ought to be able to state plainly just what that tenet is--and they don't seem to be able to do that.

death penalty

     When a trial is being arranged for a capital crime ( one that may result in a death sentence ), potential jurors are asked if they believe in the death penalty as a "qualifying" question. If the potential juror states that he or she does not believe in the death penalty, the potential juror is "disqualified". The jury will be made up only of  people who have agreed in advance that the death penalty is an acceptable criminal sentence. This not only undermines our entire jury system--wherein twelve citizens decide the facts of each case, and the guilt or innocence of the defendant--it also undermines the base of democratic government itself. We supposedly have representatives to pass laws to which the majority of the citizens have agreed, since it took a majority to elect each representative. But when selecting jurors for capital cases, more people may be turned away than accepted. In other words, more people disapprove of the death penalty than approve of it. I would like to know what the exact numbers are--that is, how many potential jurors are considered unfit, according to this test of belief, compared to the number who qualify. Two for every one?  A lawyer once guessed it at ten people turned down for each one accepted--hardly evidence that a majority wanted this law enacted.