The Case for Capital Punishment

The Case for Capital Punishment PDF Author: Alfred B. Heilbrun
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0761860355
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 129

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Book Description
As a punishment for our most serious crime--the intentional killing of a victim in an egregious way--the death penalty naturally attracts opposing moral views. One view says that the state should never execute a criminal no matter what the crime may be. The other view requires execution as justice is sought for the victim. This book considers a third possible view: capital punishment should be judged by its pragmatic value to society. Does the prospect of possible execution save lives by deterring the act of murder? Heilbrun presents evidence concerning whether state death penalties demonstrate the two necessary properties of a true deterrent: a reduction in intentional killing when present and an increase when removed. The Case for Capital Punishment contains an analysis of rarely-considered factors that influence the deterrence of murder and a discussion of the common criticisms of capital punishment.

Death Penalty Cases

Death Penalty Cases PDF Author: Barry Latzer
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0123820251
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 457

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Book Description
Death Penalty Cases presents significant verbatim excerpts of death-penalty decisions from the United States Supreme Court. The first chapter introduces the topics discussed throughout the book. It also includes a detailed history of the death penalty in the United States. After this introduction, the remaining eighteen chapters are divided into five parts: Foundational Cases, Death-Eligible Crimes and Persons, The Death Penalty Trial, Post-Conviction Review, and Execution Issues. The first part, consisting of five chapters, talks about the mandatory death penalty, mitigating evidence and racial bias. The next part covers death-eligible crimes, such as rape and other crimes that do not involve homicide and murder. The middle part presents the trial process, from choosing the appropriate decision-makers through the sentencing decision. Followed by this is a chapter focusing on the aftermath of conviction, such as claims of innocence. The book concludes by exploring issues related to execution, such as not executing insane convicts. Finally, execution methods are presented. - Provides the most recent case material--no need to supplement - Topical organization of cases provides a more logical organization for structuring a course - Co-authors with different perspectives on the death penalty assures complete impartiality of the material - Provides the necessary historical background, a clear explanation of the current capital case process, and an impartial description of the controversies surrounding the death penalty - Provides the latest statistics relevant to discussions on the death penalty - Clearly explains the different ways in which the states process death penalty cases, with excerpts of the most relevant statutes

The Death Penalty

The Death Penalty PDF Author: Ernest Van den Haag
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1489927875
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
From 1965 until 1980, there was a virtual moratorium on executions for capital offenses in the United States. This was due primarily to protracted legal proceedings challenging the death penalty on constitutional grounds. After much Sturm und Drang, the Supreme Court of the United States, by a divided vote, finally decided that "the death penalty does not invariably violate the Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause of the Eighth Amendment." The Court's decisions, however, do not moot the controversy about the death penalty or render this excellent book irrelevant. The ball is now in the court of the Legislature and the Executive. Leg islatures, federal and state, can impose or abolish the death penalty, within the guidelines prescribed by the Supreme Court. A Chief Executive can commute a death sentence. And even the Supreme Court can change its mind, as it has done on many occasions and did, with respect to various aspects of the death penalty itself, durlog the moratorium period. Also, the people can change their minds. Some time ago, a majority, according to reliable polls, favored abolition. Today, a substantial majority favors imposition of the death penalty. The pendulum can swing again, as it has done in the past.

Courting Death

Courting Death PDF Author: Carol S. Steiker
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674737423
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
Before constitutional regulation -- The Supreme Court steps in -- The invisibility of race in the constitutional revolution -- Between the Supreme Court and the states -- The failures of regulation -- An unsustainable system? -- Recurring patterns in constitutional regulation -- The future of the American death penalty -- Life after death

Jesus on Death Row

Jesus on Death Row PDF Author: Prof. Mark Osler
Publisher: Abingdon Press
ISBN: 1426722893
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 219

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Book Description
What does the most infamous criminal proceeding in history--the trial of Jesus of Nazareth--have to tell us about capital punishment in the United States? Jesus Christ was a prisoner on death row. If that statement surprises you, consider this fact: of all the roles that Jesus played--preacher, teacher, healer, mentor, friend--none features as prominently in the gospels as this one, a criminal indicted and convicted of a capital offense. Now consider another fact: the arrest, trial, and execution of Jesus bear remarkable similarities to the American criminal justice system, especially in capital cases. From the use of paid informants to the conflicting testimony of witnesses to the denial of clemency, the elements in the story of Jesus' trial mirror the most common components in capital cases today. Finally, consider a question: How might we see capital punishment in this country differently if we realized that the system used to condemn the Son of God to death so closely resembles the system we use in capital cases today? Should the experience of Jesus' trial, conviction, and execution give us pause as we take similar steps to place individuals on death row today? These are the questions posed by this surprising, challenging, and enlightening book

Capital Murder

Capital Murder PDF Author: David Crump
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description


The Case for the Corporate Death Penalty

The Case for the Corporate Death Penalty PDF Author: Mary Kreiner Ramirez
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479881570
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
"An unprecedented breakdown in the rule of law occurred in the United States after the 2008 financial collapse. Myriad large banks settled securities fraud claims for failing to disclose the risks of subprime mortgages they sold to the investing public. Rather than breaking up these powerful megabanks, , the government accepted fines that essentially punished innocent shareholders instead of senior leaders at the megabanks. In [this book the authors] examine the wrongdoing underlying the financial crisis. They reveal that the government failed to use its most powerful law enforcement tools despite overwhelming proof of fraud on Wall Street before, during, and after the crisis. The pattern of criminal indulgences exposes a new degree of crony capitalism in which the powerful can commit financial crimes of vast scale with criminal and regulatory immunity. A new economic royalty has seized the commanding heights of our economy through their control of trillions in corporate and individual wealth and their ability to dispense patronage. The Case for the Corporate Death Penalty shows that this new lawlessness poses a profound threat that urgently demands political action and proposes attainable measures to restore the rule of law in the financial sector." -- Book jacket.

Let the Lord Sort Them

Let the Lord Sort Them PDF Author: Maurice Chammah
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 1524760277
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • A deeply reported, searingly honest portrait of the death penalty in Texas—and what it tells us about crime and punishment in America “If you’re one of those people who despair that nothing changes, and dream that something can, this is a story of how it does.”—Anand Giridharadas, The New York Times Book Review WINNER OF THE J. ANTHONY LUKAS AWARD In 1972, the United States Supreme Court made a surprising ruling: the country’s death penalty system violated the Constitution. The backlash was swift, especially in Texas, where executions were considered part of the cultural fabric, and a dark history of lynching was masked by gauzy visions of a tough-on-crime frontier. When executions resumed, Texas quickly became the nationwide leader in carrying out the punishment. Then, amid a larger wave of criminal justice reform, came the death penalty’s decline, a trend so durable that even in Texas the punishment appears again close to extinction. In Let the Lord Sort Them, Maurice Chammah charts the rise and fall of capital punishment through the eyes of those it touched. We meet Elsa Alcala, the orphaned daughter of a Mexican American family who found her calling as a prosecutor in the nation’s death penalty capital, before becoming a judge on the state’s highest court. We meet Danalynn Recer, a lawyer who became obsessively devoted to unearthing the life stories of men who committed terrible crimes, and fought for mercy in courtrooms across the state. We meet death row prisoners—many of them once-famous figures like Henry Lee Lucas, Gary Graham, and Karla Faye Tucker—along with their families and the families of their victims. And we meet the executioners, who struggle openly with what society has asked them to do. In tracing these interconnected lives against the rise of mass incarceration in Texas and the country as a whole, Chammah explores what the persistence of the death penalty tells us about forgiveness and retribution, fairness and justice, history and myth. Written with intimacy and grace, Let the Lord Sort Them is the definitive portrait of a particularly American institution.

Capital Punishment on Trial

Capital Punishment on Trial PDF Author: David M. Oshinsky
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Book Description
A Pulitzer Prize-winning historian takes a new and closer look at the Supreme Court's controversial and much-debated stance on capital punishment in the landmark case of Furman v. Georgia.

Debating the Death Penalty

Debating the Death Penalty PDF Author: Hugo Adam Bedau
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780195179804
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Experts on both side of the issue speak out both for and against capital punishment and the rationale behind their individual beliefs.

Deterrence and the Death Penalty

Deterrence and the Death Penalty PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309254167
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
Many studies during the past few decades have sought to determine whether the death penalty has any deterrent effect on homicide rates. Researchers have reached widely varying, even contradictory, conclusions. Some studies have concluded that the threat of capital punishment deters murders, saving large numbers of lives; other studies have concluded that executions actually increase homicides; still others, that executions have no effect on murder rates. Commentary among researchers, advocates, and policymakers on the scientific validity of the findings has sometimes been acrimonious. Against this backdrop, the National Research Council report Deterrence and the Death Penalty assesses whether the available evidence provides a scientific basis for answering questions of if and how the death penalty affects homicide rates. This new report from the Committee on Law and Justice concludes that research to date on the effect of capital punishment on homicide rates is not useful in determining whether the death penalty increases, decreases, or has no effect on these rates. The key question is whether capital punishment is less or more effective as a deterrent than alternative punishments, such as a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Yet none of the research that has been done accounted for the possible effect of noncapital punishments on homicide rates. The report recommends new avenues of research that may provide broader insight into any deterrent effects from both capital and noncapital punishments.