Does the Church Believe in Capital Punishment?

The statement that those who kill shall die may be understood in at least two different senses. First, all who commit sin diminish God's influence in their lives—a condition known as spiritual death. Second, serious offenses, such as murder, may also result in one's life being forfeited. Doctrine and Covenants 42:79 specifies that such punishment is to be meted out only by the law of the land. President Wilford Woodruff wrote: "The revelations of God to this Church make death the penalty for capital crime, and require that offenders against life and property shall be delivered up to and tried by the laws of the land" (Deseret Weekly, 12 Dec. 1889).

Elder B. H. Roberts acknowledged "an accusation to the effect that we believe in what is called 'blood atonement.' So, indeed, we do; and so also do the Christian world. Is it not the belief of the Christian world that they will be saved through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God? Most assuredly; and so, too, do we believe in the atonement of the Christ. . . . But the reputation has gone out . . . that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the 'Mormon' Church, arrogates to itself the right to take human life for apostasy from the Church, and for certain other sins. That is a slander; it is not true. We do not believe the doctrine; we do not claim for the Church that it has the right of capital punishment, or the right of executing vengeance" (Defense of the Faith, 2:452-53; see also Roberts, Comprehensive History, 4:129).


(Richard O. Cowan, Answers to Your Questions About the Doctrine and Covenants [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1996], 54.)