Omar and Azmeralda Alfi Professor of Law at the University of Southern California
Position:
Not Clearly Pro or Con
to the question "Should the death penalty be allowed?"
Reasoning:
"The Koran says quite explicitly that God created human beings, and put into them, or put onto them a part of God’s breath. And to reach the conclusion of termination of that divinity requires that one reach a level of not just evidentiary, but a certain degree of moral certitude. And that moral certitude, although my position is not unequivocal and sort of categorical, but I find it difficult to hypothesize, to imagine abstractly a situation in which one would be so sure at a moral plain that the snuffing away or the taking away of that breath of God is justified."
"A Call for Reckoning: Religion and the Death Penalty," Pew Forum, Jan. 25, 2002
Experts
Individuals with MDs, JDs, PhDs, other relevant advanced degrees, corrections and government officials with significant involvement in, or related to, death penalty issues. [Note: Experts definition varies by site]
Involvement and Affiliations:
Omar and Azmeralda Alfi Professor of Law, University of Southern California, 1998-2008
Named, Carnegie Scholar in Islamic Studies, Carnegie Foundation, 2005
Assistant Professor, University of Texas at Austin
