Capital punishment in the United States
Religion plays a complicated role in death penalty arguments.  To support the death penalty, some people quote from the Old Testament of the Bible, which says: "An eye for an eye, a life for a life."  This means that if you take a life, you should pay with your own life.  However, others use parts of the New Testament, where Jesus talks about forgiveness and nonviolence, to oppose the death penalty.  They say that no one has the right to take a life but God  even if that person has taken a life himself.