Michael Dow Burkhead

A Life for a Life

The American Debate Over the Death Penalty

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Providing a new look at the intense public debate surrounding the death penalty in the United States, this book explores the various trends in public opinion that influence crime prevention efforts, create public policy, and reform criminal law. It examines eight core issues about the use of execution: cruel and unusual punishment, discrimination, deterrence, due process, culpability, scripture, innocence, and justice. It provides a brief history of capital punishment in the United States from the earliest known execution at the Jamestown Colony in 1608 to executions occurring as recently as 2008. Additional topics include the regionalization of capital punishment sentences, the spiritual and scriptural debate over the death penalty, the role of DNA evidence in modern execution sentences, and the ongoing effects of Furman v. Georgia, McClesky v. Kemp, Baze v. Rees, and other related court rulings.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: McFarland
• Seitenzahl: 216
• Erscheinungstermin: 6. August 2009
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 229mm x 152mm x 13mm
• Gewicht: 358g
• ISBN-13: 9780786433681
• ISBN-10: 078643368X
• Artikelnr.: 26573084

Autorenporträt

Psychologist Michael Dow Burkhead has worked in varying capacities with criminal offenders for 25 years and has written a number of articles regarding the treatment of mentally ill prisoners and the death penalty. He lives in Morganton, North Carolina.

Inhaltsangabe

Table of Contents
List of Tables and Figures     
Preface     
1. Framing the Debate
Introduction     
Historical Overview     
The Regionalization of Execution     
Opposition to the Death Penalty     
The Furman Decision     
The Post-Furman Debate     
A Picture of the Present     
The Major Questions     
2. The Question of Cruel and Unusual Punishment
Introduction: The Slave Darby     
What Is Cruel and Unusual?     
Public Execution     
The Method of Execution     
Why Must Execution Be Painless?     
3. The Question of Discrimination
Introduction     
McCleskey v. Kemp     
Further Research     
Gender and the Death Sentence     
Bias and Arbitrariness     
4. The Question of Due Process
Introduction: What Is Due Process?     
The Capital Trial     
Victim Impact Evidence     
Competent Counsel     
5. The Question of Deterrence
Introduction     
Two Waves of Research     
Is Deterrence Relevant?     
6. The Question of Culpability
Introduction     
The Intellectually Disabled     
Juvenile Offenders     
The Mentally Ill     
The Non-Triggerman     
Summary     
7. The Question of Scripture
Introduction     
The Scriptural Debate     
The Positions of the Churches     
The Early Church     
Summary     
8. The Question of Innocence
Introduction     
An Example Case     
DNA Evidence     
9. The Question of Justice
Doing Justice     
The Myth of Closure     
10. The Current Situation
Introduction     
The Question of Cost     
Modern Explanations for Our Death Penalty Attitudes     
The Current Situation     
Appendices     
A. The Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment (2008)     
B. The California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice (2008)
     
C. The New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission (2007)     
D. The Tennessee Death Penalty Assessment (2007)     
Chapter Notes     
Bibliography     
Index