Women's religious conversions on death row: theorizing religion and state

• Published in: Journal of the American Academy of Religion Vol. 70; no. 4; pp. 699 - 718
• Main Author: Cooey, Paula M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cary, NC Oxford University Press 01.12.2002; Oxford Publishing Limited (England)
• Subjects: Buddhism; Capital punishment; Capital Punishment - history; Capital Punishment - legislation & jurisprudence; Christianity; Contemporary period; Criminal conversion; Cultural Characteristics; General subjects; History and sciences of religions; History, 20th Century; Islam; Judicial Role - history; Killing; Moral principles; Prisoners; Prisoners - education; Prisoners - history; Prisoners - legislation & jurisprudence; Prisoners - psychology; Prisons; Religion - history; Religious conversion; Social Conditions - economics; Social Conditions - history; Social Conditions - legislation & jurisprudence; Sociological studies; Women - education; Women - history; Women - psychology; Women's Health - ethnology; Women's Health - history; Women's Rights - economics; Women's Rights - education; Women's Rights - history; Women's Rights - legislation & jurisprudence; United States of America; Death Penalty; Woman; Conversion; Religion-State
• ISSN: 0002-7189; 1477-4585
• DOI: 10.1093/jaar/70.4.699

Most scholars of religion who approach the phenomena associated with religious conversion in order to theorize religion tend to ignore the legal and political implications of the actual context in which conversion occurs for theorizing religion itself. Meanwhile, political and legal theorists who attend to the implications of executing convicted murderers who undergo religious conversion on death row err in a different direction. They virtually ignore the significance of the claims made by the converts and their associates about the conversion themselves for theorizing the state. Scholars across disciplines increasingly address issues of race, class, gender, and sexual orientation in respect to theorizing religion and theorizing the state independently of one another. At the same time, they do not seize the opportunity to incorporate their analyses into a wider study of the sociocultural production of religion and state in relation to each other. I examine the religious conversion of Karla Faye Tucker and Wanda Jean Allen on death row, as well as the scholarship that their convictions, conversions, and executions have generated across academic disciplines and fields. Close examination illustrates well the necessity for theorizing religion and the state in relation to one another in order to understand either adequately.