Deathquest : an introduction to the theory and practice of capital punishment in the United States / Robert M. Bohm.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bohm, Robert M., author.

Contributor:

ProQuest ebook central

Lipman Criminology Library Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Capital punishment--United States.

Capital punishment.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxiv, 569 pages.)

Edition:

Fifth edition.

Place of Publication:

New York ; London : Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2017.

Contents:

1. History of the death penalty in the United States : the pre-modern period

Death penalty in Colonial times

Death penalty laws

Executions and saving souls

Death penalty abolitionists

The death penalty in the Nineteenth Century

Hiding executions from the public

From mandatory to discretionary capital punishment statutes

States abolish the death penalty

From locally authorized to state-authorized executions

The death penalty in the first half of the Twentieth Century

States abolish and reinstate the death penalty

The death penalty form 1950 to the mid-1960s

The case of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg

The case of Caryl Chessman

2. Capital punishment and the Supreme Court : the pre-modern period

Judicial review and the regulation of capital punishment

Pre-modern Supreme court death penalty cases

Clemency

Coerced confessions and compelled self-incrimination

Execution methods and procedures

Defective lineup procedures

Double jeopardy

Effective assistance of counsel

Equal protection

Ex post facto

Fair trials

Jurisdiction

Jury instructions

Jury selection

Sentencing

3. The challenge to capital punishment's legality

The Rudolph case

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund lawyers

The Maxwell case

United States v. Jackson and Witherspoon v. Illinois

Boykin v. Alabama

McGautha v. California and Crampton v. Ohio

Aikens, Branch, Jackson, and Furman

Furman v. Georgia

Woodson v. North Carolina and Gregg v. Georgia

Aggravating versus mitigating or weighing death penalty statutes

Aggravating-only or threshold death penalty statutes

Structured discretion or directed statutes

Automatic appellate review

4. Capital punishment and the Supreme Court : the modern period

The constitutionality of death penalty statutes

What crimes are capital

Mitigating circumstances

Aggravating circumstances

The Appellate Process

Capital juries

Who may or may not be executed

Assistance of counsel

Other procedural issues

5. The death penalty at the Federal level, in the military, and globally

Death penalty at the Federal level

Capital punishment and the Federal courts

Federal capital crimes

Federal capital punishment procedures

Federal executions

The Racial Justice Act and the Fairness in Death Sentencing Act

The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996

The Innocence Protection Act of 2004

Death penalty in the military

Military executions

Military capital offenses

Military capital punishment procedures

A study of the military's modern death penalty

The death penalty in the global context

Abolishing the death penalty for all crimes

Abolishing the death penalty in practice

Abolishing the death penalty for all but exceptional crimes

Abolitionist countries that reintroduced the death penalty

Retentionist countries and their execution records

On the worldwide trend toward abolition

Responses to American exceptionalism regarding capital punishment

6. Cruel and unusual punishment, Death Row, and methods of execution

Introduction : cruel and unusual punishment

What about long stays on Death Row?

What about the execution of elderly and infirm Death Row inmates?

What about conditions on Death Row?

Methods of execution

Hanging

Firing squad

Electrocution

Lethal gas

Lethal injection

The execution process

The death warrant

Deathwatch

Executions

A note on witnessing an execution

7. General deterrence and the death penalty

The relative importance of general deterrence

Arguments and counterarguments

Evidence

Pre-1975 studies

Ehrlich finds a general deterrent effect

Post-Ehrlich studies

Five counterarguments to studies that show no general deterrent effect

Assumptions and problems with Deterrence Theory

The counterdeterrent or brutalizing effect

Murder versus capital punishment

8. Future dangerousness, incapacitation, and economic costs of capital punishment

Are executions necessary?

Escapes, errors, oversights, and other mistakes

Why not execute all capital offenders?

Selecting the very worst

LWOP (life without parole) as an alternative

The Furman-commuted inmates

Incapacitation

The economic costs of capital punishment versus life imprisonment

Economic costs of capital punishment under Pre-Furman statutes

Economic costs of capital punishment under Post-Furman statutes

Pretrial

Trial

Posttrial

Imprisonment

Execution

Streamlining the Appellate and postconviction process

9. Miscarriages of justice and the death penalty

Definitions of innocence

Miscarriages of justice in pre-Gregg (1976) capital cases

Borchard's research

Bedau's research

Research by Bedau and Radelet

Miscarriages of justice in post-Gregg (1976) capital cases : despite super due process

Wrongful executions under post-Gregg (1976) statutes

Errors in capital cases

Why wrongful convictions occur in capital cases

Shoddy investigation and misconduct by the police

Eyewitness misidentification and perjury by prosecution witnesses

False confessions

Guilty pleas by innocent defendants

Prosecutor misconduct

Inadequate DNA testing requirements

Judicial misconduct or error

Bad defense lawyers

Jury problems

The illusive hope of clemency

What can be done?

Good defense attorneys

Adopt the ABA's 2003 Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Counsel in Death Penalty Cases

Punish the misconduct of defense attorneys

Improve police investigations, interrogations, and the handling of evidence

Improve eyewitness identification techniques and procedures

Improve the work and credibility of crime laboratory technicians

Improve DNA testing requirements

Set rigorous standards for jailhouse snitches.informants

Improve police training

Punish police misconduct

Guide prosecutors' decisions to seek the death penalty

Improve disclosure requirements

Punish prosecutor misconduct

Better training and certification of trial judges in capital cases

Give trial judges veto power

Eliminate time limits and other constraints on claims of actual innocence

Improve the clemency process

Collect relevant data

Innocence projects and innocence commissions

Assistance and indemnity

Moratorium

10. Arbitrariness and discrimination in the administration of the death penalty

Under post-Furman statutes

Few death-eligible offenders are executed

Application of the death penalty across jurisdictions and over time

Post-Furman statutes justify arbitrariness

Jurors' misunderstanding or underestimating their sentencing obligations

Rule changes by the supreme court

Problems in determining murderous intent

Plea bargaining

Appellate Courts

Discrimination in the administration of the death penalty under post-Furman statutes

Disparity versus discrimination

Discrimination based on social class and the definition of murder

Discrimination by gender

Discrimination by age

Racial discrimination

Race-of-offender discrimination

Race-of-victim discrimination

Theories of racial discrimination in the administration of the death penalty

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 493-543) and index.

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI Available via World Wide Web.

Description based on print version record.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Lipman Criminology Library Fund.

ISBN:

9781317377849 (electronic bk.)

1317377842 (electronic bk.)

Publisher Number:

99992182557

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.