Capital Punishment and the American Agenda

By Gordon Hawkins, Franklin E. Zimring, Zimring, Franklin E. Zimring, Franklin E.

Book Overview

The death penalty is not simply the most serious criminal punishment. It has been a singular social, legal, and moral problem in the Western world over the past two hundred years. Capital punishment is disappearing from every nation in the West except the United States. No political science of capital punishment in the United States has been attempted until this book. Franklin E. Zimring and Gordon Hawkins offer a redefinition of the central political and legal issues and a re-examination of the whole subject in the light of the social, political, and moral conditions of the United States in the 1980s. Lawyers, criminologists, political scientists, and motivated general readers will find the profile of a United States pursuing an active execution policy in the 1980s and 1990s to be an original and compelling contribution to the discussion of the future of the death penalty. Zimring and Hawkins's prediction for future policy, while based on historical precedent, is in sharp contrast to conventional wisdom about the United States Supreme Court. This book was first published in 1986.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 052137863X
• ISBN13: 9780521378635
• Release Date: February 1989
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 212 Pages
• Weight: 2.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Good Work here!

Zimring's work is superb and this book, published in the 1980s has some staying power. Frank makes some interesting predictions, the one most prominent right now is his statement that capital punishment would not be abolished because of racism or the conviction of innocents. He was right. It took a major recession to convince lawmakers in New Mexico that something needed to be done. A sad comment on Americans I think. As for Zimring himself, he remains the sort of guy one admires from a distance. He is ill-tempered, rude, and as confrontational as his book is brilliant.