Capital punishment PDF
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Capital Punishment Recent Titlesin HistoricalGuidesto ControversialIssues inAmerica JuvenileJustice LauraL. Finley The WelfareDebate Greg M.Shaw The GamblingDebate Richard A.McGowan Censorship MarkPaxton The Torture andPrisoner Abuse Debate LauraL. Finley Affirmative Action John W.Johnsonand RobertP.Green, Jr. AlternativeEnergy BrianC.Black andRichard Flarend The Healthcare Debate Greg M.Shaw GlobalWarming BrianC.Black andGaryJ. Weisel Separationof Churchand State JonathanA. Wright Evolution,Creationism, andIntelligent Design Allene Phy-Olsen Prostitution andSex Work Melissa Hope Ditmore Capital Punishment Joseph A. Melusky and Keith Alan Pesto HistoricalGuides toControversial Issuesin America Copyright2011byJosephA.MeluskyandKeithAlanPesto Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedina retrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical, photocopying,recording,orotherwise,exceptfortheinclusionofbriefquotationsina review,withoutpriorpermissioninwritingfromthepublisher. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Melusky,JosephAnthony. Capitalpunishment/JosephA.MeluskyandKeithAlanPesto. p.cm.—(HistoricalguidestocontroversialissuesinAmerica) Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN978–0–313–33558–7(hardback)—ISBN978–1–4408–0057–3(ebook) 1. Capitalpunishment—UnitedStates. I.Pesto,KeithA.II.Title. KF9227.C2M4158 2011 345.7300773—dc23 2011022042 ISBN:978–0–313–33558–7 EISBN:978–1–4408–0057–3 15 14 13 12 11 1 2 3 4 5 ThisbookisalsoavailableontheWorldWideWebasaneBook. Visitwww.abc-clio.comfordetails. Greenwood AnImprintofABC-CLIO,LLC ABC-CLIO,LLC 130CremonaDrive,P.O.Box1911 SantaBarbara,California93116-1911 Thisbookisprintedonacid-freepaper ManufacturedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica Tomy children,Mikeand Jessica, to mywife,Marie, and to thememoryof mydad, George,and mymom, Eleanor. —J.A.M. To thememoryof RichardF.Oles, who first sparked myinterest inthe debate over thedeathpenalty. —K.A.P. Contents Preface ix 1 History 1 2 Facts, Figures, and Methods of Execution 45 3 The United States Constitution and Capital Punishment 61 4 Arguments For and Against the Death Penalty 105 Appendix 1:AnAnnotated List of Cases:EvolvingStandards of Decency andthe U.S.Supreme Court’s Treatmentof Capital Punishment 157 Appendix 2:Capital PunishmentTimeline 175 Appendix 3:Bibliography and Selected Resources 191 Index 201 Preface The debate about capital punishment is passionate and enduring. Context and circumstances matter. Who was the victim? What was done to him or her? Whowas the perpetrator? Were there extenuating circumstances? Is he or she a sympathetic figure for some reason? Are we talking to the victim’s family or the defendant’s? What about contemporary mores and “evolving standards of decency”? This book examines the capital punishment debate. It raises questions and supplies few definitive answers. It does, however, attempt to provide abalanced and evenhanded analysisof theissues. This book is written for patrons of public, high school, college, and uni- versity libraries. It is written for undergraduate students in American government, United States history, criminal justice, constitutional law, and civil rights and civil liberties classes. It is written for high school students in relevant advanced-placement classes. And it is written for citizens who are interested in the historical evolution and contemporary application of the death penalty. This book combines analysis of important issues with references to land- mark legal decisions, important documents, survey results, and empirical data.Thebookdiscussestheoriginsofthedeathpenaltyandtracesitsdevel- opmentfromantiquitytomorecontemporary times.Theopeninghistorical chapter focuses onrelatively recent historyfrom the time of the founding of the AmericanRepublicto today.Next,in a fairlydetailedchapter on“Facts, Figures, and Methods of Execution,” statistical information about capital punishment is presented and discussed. In the third chapter, the death
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