The death of the American death penalty : states still leading the way / Larry W. Koch, Colin Wark, John F. Galliher.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Koch, Larry Wayne, 1946-

Contributor:

Wark, Colin (Colin D.)

Galliher, John F.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Capital punishment--United States--States.

Capital punishment.

United States.

Physical Description:

xii, 242 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Boston : Northeastern University Press, [2012]

Summary:

The death penalty has largely disappeared as a national legislative issue and the Supreme Court has mainly bowed out, leaving the states at the cutting edge of abolition politics. This essential guide presents and explains the changing political and cultural challenges to capital punishment at the state level.As with their previous volume, America Without the Death Penalty (Northeastern, 2002), the authors of this completely new volume concentrate on the local and regional relationships between death penalty abolition and numerous empirical factors, such as economic conditions; public sentiment; the roles of social, political, and economic elites; the mass media; and population diversity. They highlight the recent abolition of the practice in New York, New Jersey, New Mexico, and Illinois; the near misses in New Hampshire, Connecticut, Maryland, and Nebraska; the Kansas rollercoaster rides; and the surprising recent decline of the death penalty even in the deep South.Abolition of the death penalty in the United States is a piecemeal process, with one state after another peeling off from the pack until none is left and the tragic institution finally is no more. This book tells you how, and why, that will likely happen. Hardcover is un-jacketed.

Contents:

Death penalty debates in traditional abolitionist jurisdictions

The New York State death penalty debate

The abolition of capital punishment in New Jersey

The abolition of capital punishment in New Mexico

The abolition of capital punishment in Illinois

The recurring life and death of death penalty legislation in Kansas

Recent death penalty abolition near misses in New England : New Hampshire and Connecticut

Recent abolition near misses : Nebraska and Maryland

De facto abolition states

Opposition to capital punishment in the South and Texas

Summary and conclusion : the death penalty on a downhill slop.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781555537807

1555537804

9781555537814

1555537812

9781555537821

1555537820

OCLC:

760976064