Exile and Embrace

"Santoro's Exile and Embrace is a masterfully written book about religious discourse on the death penalty in the U.S. The concept of exile versus embrace captures the heart of religious debates on the topic. One of the book's strengths is the remarkable way that Santoro captures similarities between the two camps rather than only differences, showing that it is beliefs about the degree of distance between the offender and society that are important. This book is a must-read for anyone wanting to understand the heart of contemporary death penalty debates." —Susan F. Sharp, L. J. Semrod Presidential Professor, University of Oklahoma and author of Hidden Victims: The Effects of the Death Penalty on Families of the Accused

"Anthony Santoro's Exile and Embrace shows how religious beliefs still infuse America's death penalty debate. In bearing witness to Virginia's dehumanizing capital punishment system, Santoro tells the stories of everyone from death row chaplains to bloggers and Bible study participants. In discussing transgression, retribution, and 'the other,' he skillfully demonstrates how executions say more about us than about the offenders." —John D. Bessler, associate professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law, adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, and author of Cruel and Unusual: The American Death Penalty and the Founders' Eighth Amendment