--- - |2 Abstract Capital punishment originated with the earliest tribes, but in recent decades more than 140 countries have abolished the death penalty. Despite the opposition of many U.S. religious organizations, the majority of Americans favor the use of the death penalty. The role of religion in support for capital punishment remains unclear because most faiths contain opposing messages of punishment and redemption. This study seeks to provide a better understanding of this often contradictory relationship between religion and support for the death penalty. Using data from the 2008 wave of the General Social Survey, the authors explore how spirituality, religiosity, beliefs about the afterlife, theism, and religious tradition influence one's opinion of the death penalty. Results from robust Poisson regression show that religiosity decreases support for the death penalty, but a belief in Hell strongly increases support for punitive forms of corporeal justice. Uncertainty in the existence of an afterlife and the existence of Heaven also significantly affect support for the death penalty. Independent of these factors, conservatism had the largest effects on support for capital punishment. The divergent effects of religious expression are discussed. - 'Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, EarlyView. '