Imprisoned by the past : Warren McCleskey and the American death penalty / Jeffrey L. Kirchmeier.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kirchmeier, Jeffrey L., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

McCleskey, Warren.

Capital punishment--United States.

Capital punishment.

United States.

McCleskey, Warren--Trials, litigation, etc.

Discrimination in criminal justice administration--United States.

Discrimination in criminal justice administration.

Physical Description:

xiii, 431 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2015]

Summary:

In Imprisoned by the Past: Warren McCleskey, Race, and the American Death Penalty Jeffrey L. Kirchmeier explores the historical context and present impact of one of the most important U.S. Supreme Court decisions. Warren McCleskey's case forced the Supreme Court in 1987 to confront evidence of racial bias in the capital punishment system, raising far-reaching questions about race and punishment that have existed since the earliest criminal laws and the brutal practice of Synching. The book recounts the history of the evolving American death penalty, evaluates the role that race played in that history, and tells the story of Warren McCleskey and how his life and legal case brought together the other two narratives, illuminating how today's U.S. death penalty remains imprisoned by the past. Book jacket.

Contents:

A death in Dixie

The trial of Warren McCleskey

Offie Evans and McCleskey v. Zant

The first limits : the early American death penalty through the 1850s

Wars and death penalty abolition : the Civil War through early 1900s

A time of change : American society and the death penalty 1950s through the 1960s

Into the courthouse : the 1970s abolition strategy

A new era : a new U.S. death penalty returns in the late 1970s

Starting over : executions resume in the 1970s and 1980s

Lynching and race in America

Race and the courts

Warren McCleskey and the Baldus study

The Supreme Court and McCleskey v Kemp

Mitigation and reform

Warren McCleskey & the electric chair

Other American execution methods

The unstoppable death penalty after McCleskey into the early 1990s

New abolitionist voices in the 1990s

Innocence and the American death penalty

A moratorium movement emerges in the 1990s

The early twenty-first century death penalty in the courts

The early twenty-first century death penalty in U.S. politics

Escaping from imprisonment of the past

Epilogue : Warren McCleskey's case and the American death penalty today .

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780199967933

0199967938

OCLC:

881560462