NCJ Number
183768
Editor(s)
Hugo A. Bedau
Date Published
1997
Length
542 pages
Annotation
This is a comprehensive collection of readings on the pros and cons of the death penalty.
Abstract
The book contains 33 chapters organized in seven parts. Part I presents information on U.S. capital punishment laws, volume and rate of criminal homicide in recent years, distribution of death row prisoners across the nation, the annual number of executions and the American death penalty scene in an international context. Part II reports on and examines public opinion on the death penalty and alternative punishments. Part III examines the debate over deterrence and incapacitation in light of the most recent research. Part IV reviews Supreme Court decisions and opinions on the issue of the death penalty as “cruel and unusual” punishment, followed by two commentaries on the constitutional debate and a brief examination of the death penalty in the U.S. from a perspective of international human rights law. Part IV examines the controversy over Federal habeas corpus. Part V considers the charges that the death penalty is racist and is applied only to the poor. Part VI tracks capital cases from the prosecutor’s office to the execution chamber. Part VII presents two debates over the death penalty between Christian theologians and secular philosophers. Tables, figures, notes, bibliography, index