Description
Book SynopsisCapital punishment is one of the more controversial subjects in the social sciences, especially in criminal justice and criminology. Over the last decade or so, the United States has experienced a significant decline in the number of death sentences and executions. Since 2007, eight states have abolished capital punishment, bringing the total number of states without the death penalty to 19, plus the District of Columbia, and more are likely to follow suit in the near future (Nebraska reinstated its death penalty in 2016). Worldwide, 70 percent of countries have abolished capital punishment in law or in practice. The current trend suggests the eventual demise of capital punishment in all but a few recalcitrant states and countries. Within this context, a fresh look at capital punishment in the United States and worldwide is warranted.
The Routledge Handbook on Capital Punishment comprehensively examines the topic of capital punishment from a wide variety of persp
Trade Review
The broad range of important themes and topics covered, all in one text, will be a valuable resource for students, researchers, and professionals. The editors have done excellent work in identifying a fairly wide readership and outlining a text that will appeal to that readership…In addition to the book being well-structured and including a range of important themes and issues around capital punishment, the chapters are authored by well-respected scholars. The collection of authors is impressive, and the book is sure to reflect current research and scholarship. – DJ Williams, Idaho State University
The contents of this compendium demonstrate that the "withering away" of the death penalty is a real phenomenon related to, among other things, racial bias, high costs, super-regulation, the failure of juror decision-making, and wrongful conviction errors. The volume also focuses on the hopeful Marshall hypothesis that an educated public is more likely to accept the death penalty's failures. – Leona D. Jochnowitz, in Criminal Law Bulletin, Vol. 55, No. 5 (2019)
Table of ContentsPART 1: CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: HISTORY, OPINION, AND CULTURE
A. History
1. The American Death Penalty: A Short (But Long) History
John Bessler, University of Baltimore School of Law
2. Capital Punishment and Lynching
Margaret Vandiver, University of Memphis
B. Opinion
3. Public Opinion About the Death Penalty
James D. Unnever, University of South Florida, Sarasota, Manatee; Leah Butler, University of Cincinnati; Francis Cullen, University of Cincinnati; and Angela Thielo, University of Louisville
4. The Marshall Hypotheses
John Cochran, University of South Florida
C. Culture
5. Media and Capital Punishment
Matthew Robinson, Appalachian State University
6. Popular Media and the Death Penalty: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Death Penalty in Film
Maya Pagni Barak, University of Michigan, Dearborn
7. Why We Need the Death Penalty
Andrew Fulkerson, Southeastern Missouri State University
PART 2: CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: RATIONALES AND RELIGIOUS VIEWS
A. Rationales
8. Retribution
George Kain, Western Connecticut State University, and Dale Recinella, St. Mary Mother of Mercy
9. General Deterrence and Brutalization
Gennaro Vito, University of Louisville, and Anthony Vito, University of West Georgia
10. Incapacitation and Life without Parole
Jon Sorensen, Texas A&M University, Prairie View, and Thomas Reidy, ABPP
B. Religious Views
11. Christianity and the Death Penalty
Tobias Winright, St. Louis University
12. Judaism and the Death Penalty
Edna Erez, University of Illinois at Chicago, and Kathy Laster, Victoria University
13. Death Penalty in Sharia Law
Sanaz Alasti, Lamar University, and Eric Bronson, Lamar University
PART 3: CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AND CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUES
14. The U.S. Supreme Court and the Death Penalty
Katherine Bennett, Armstrong State University, and H. Chris Tecklenberg, Armstrong State University
15. Capital Punishment and Aggravating and Mitigating Circumstances
Carol Steiker, Harvard Law School, and Jordan Steiker, University of Texas Law School
16. Capital Offenders’ Intellectual Disability and "Insanity": Excluding and Delaying the Death Penalty
Peggy Tobolowsky, University of North Texas
PART 4: THE DEATH PENALTY’S ADMINISTRATION
17. The Financial Costs of the Death Penalty: Examining the Evidence
Gordon Waldo, Florida State University
18. Prosecutors and Capital Punishment
Stacy Parker, Muskingum University
19. Counsel for the Despised and Condemned: Capital Defense Attorneys
Jeffrey Kirchmeier, City University of New York School of Law
20. The Capital Jury and Sentencing: Neither Guided Nor Individualized
Wanda Foglia, Rowan University, and Marla Sandys, Indiana University Bloomington
21. The Penalty Phase of the Capital Murder Trial: A Social-Psychological Analysis
Mark Costanzo, Claremont McKenna College, and Zoey Costanzo, Cornell University
22. The Appellate Process in Capital Cases
Vanessa Woodward Griffin, University of West Georgia, and O. Hayden Griffin III, University of Alabama, Birmingham
23. Clemency: Failsafe or Fantasy?
Cathleen Burnett, University of Missouri, Kansas City
24. Execution Methods in a Nutshell
Deborah Denno, Fordham University
25. California’s Chaotic Death Penalty
Stacy Mallicoat, California State University, Fullerton; Brenda L. Vogel, California State University, Long Beach; and David Crawford, Death Penalty Focus
26. Reflections on the Abattoir - Texas
Dennis Longmire, Sam Houston State University, and Alex Updegrove, Sam Houston State University
27. The Federal Death Penalty
Stephanie Mizrahi, California State University, Sacramento
28. The Death Penalty and the United States Armed Forces
Catherine Grosso, Michigan State University
PART 5: THE DEATH PENALTY’S CONSEQUENCES
29. The Topography of Capital Punishment: Geographic Variations in Seeking, Achieving, and Carrying Out the Death Penalty
Adam Trahan, University of North Texas; Kaleigh B. Laird, University of North Texas; and Douglas N. Evans, Mercy College
30. Age, Class, and Sex Disparities in Capital Punishment
Etta Morgan, Jackson State University
31. Race and the Death Penalty
Kristie Blevins, Eastern Kentucky University, and Kevin Minor, Eastern Kentucky University
32. Wrongful Capital Convictions
Talia Roitberg Harmon, Niagara University, and Diana Falco, Niagara University
33. Life and Work on Death Row
Robert Johnson, American University
34. Capital Punishment and Victims’ and Offenders’ Families
Lynn Pazzani, University of West Georgia
35. Capital Punishment’s Co-Victims
Kyle Burgason, Iowa State University
36. Exoneration: Life After Death Row
Scott Vollum, University of Minnesota, Duluth
37. The Demise of the Death Penalty with Special Focus on the United States
Robert M. Bohm, University of Central Florida
