Sources of Injustice in Death Penalty Practice: The Pennsylvania Experience

Abstract

What is the point of an opponent of the death penalty, like myself, discussing the injustice of certain death sentences? The opponent of the death penalty, after all, opposes the death penalty in all cases, whether “just” or “unjust.” In that regard, the opponent does not commit himself in a candid way to assist in understanding when the death penalty might be a just outcome and when, instead, the death penalty might be thought unjust.