NCJ Number
151344
Journal
Crime, Law and Social Change Volume: 21 Issue: 2 Dated: (1994) Pages: 127-154
Date Published
1994
Length
28 pages
Annotation
The author uses a review of Welsh S. White's "The Death Penalty in the Nineties" as a framework for analyzing recent trends in the United States Supreme Court's death penalty jurisprudence.
Abstract
Since 1976, the Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of capital punishment at least in part on the notion that the death penalty serves the useful social purpose of retribution. This article contends that it is imperative to distinguish between retribution and vengeance as rationales for criminal punishment. Modern retributive theory calls for punishments to be guided by considerations of proportionality, fairness, and equality. Vengeance-based punishments are aimed at satisfying the victim's and society's desire for retaliation and are not limited by the retributive principle that punishment must be proportionate to the severity of the crime and the moral blameworthiness of the offender. The article analyzes recent Supreme Court decisions that are not examined in White's book, decisions that allow the introduction of victim-impact evidence into capital sentencing proceedings and permit the death penalty to be imposed on 16-year-old offenders, mentally retarded defendants, and those who neither kill nor intend to kill. These decisions, it is argued, demonstrate that the contemporary Court has bestowed judicial approval on vengeance as an acceptable justification for capital punishment. Notes