The Death Penalty: America's Experience with Capital Punishment

By Raymond Paternoster, Sarah Bacon, Robert Brame

Book Overview

This book addresses one of the most controversial issues in the criminal justice system today--the death penalty. Paternoster et al. present a balanced perspective that focuses on both the arguments for and against capital punishment. Coverage draws on legal, historical, philosophical, economic, sociological, and religious points of view.

Topics include:

* The history of the death penalty in the United States, from the 1600s to today
* The changing nature of the death penalty--changes in the types of crimes that warranted the penalty, the procedures employed to put capital offenders on trial, and the methods used to impose death
* Constitutional/legal issues surrounding the death penalty
* The influence of race on the administration of the death penalty, both in the past and in the present
* Justifications for and against the death penalty (retribution, cost, public safety, and religious arguments)
* Questions about the execution of innocents, exonerated capital offenders, and flaws in the operation of the death penalty
* Public opinion and the death penalty
* The death penalty and international law and practice
* The future of the death penalty in America

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195332423
• ISBN13: 9780195332421
• Release Date: July 2007
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 362 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.9" x 8.9"