American Death Penalty Research Articles

Capital punishment in America: an annotated bibliography

Capital punishment in America: an annotated bibliography

The Future of the Death Penalty in America

The Future of the Death Penalty in America

American Death Penalty Attitudes

Public support for the death penalty is something of an American tradition. Yet the bases of the American tradition of support for the death penalty are not well understood. An understanding of American attitudes toward capital punishment is important, not only because the United States is again executing criminal offenders, but because it provides a rough estimate of the level of maturity of American civilization. This study critically examines the reasons and processes by which Americans come to support the death penalty.

The Death Penalty in America

Collected essays analyze and evaluate the practice of capital punishment and present arguments for and against it.

The death penalty in America : 3rd edition, edited by Hugo Adam Bedau. Oxford University Press (200 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016), 1982, 424 pp., hardcover—$29.92, softcover—$9.95.

The death penalty in America : 3rd edition, edited by Hugo Adam Bedau. Oxford University Press (200 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016), 1982, 424 pp., hardcover—$29.92, softcover—$9.95.

Capital Punishment-"Cruel and Unusal"?: A Retributivist Response

Previous articleNext article No AccessDiscussionCapital Punishment-"Cruel and Unusal"?: A Retributivist ResponseRobert S. GersteinRobert S. Gerstein Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Ethics Volume 85, Number 1Oct., 1974 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/291941 Views: 46Total views on this site Citations: 8Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1974 University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Thomas Søbirk Petersen On Dignity Principles of Criminalization: A Critical Discussion, (Nov 2019): 93–111.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34690-4_5A. Kadlac Flouting the Demands of Justice? Physician Participation in Executions, Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 39, no.55 (Sep 2014): 505–522.https://doi.org/10.1093/jmp/jhu029Whitley R. P. Kaufman Retribution and Revenge, (Aug 2012): 93–112.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4845-3_5Thomas S. Petersen Punishment and Dignity, (Jan 2010): 111–129.https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230290624_7Robert C. Solomon The emotions of justice, Social Justice Research 3, no.44 (Dec 1989): 345–374.https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01048082Austin Sarat Deterrence and the constitution: On the limits of capital punishment, Journal of Behavioral Economics 6 (Jun 1977): 311–359.https://doi.org/10.1016/S0090-5720(77)80015-6George W. Johnson Abstracts of Documents in this Supplement, (Jan 1976): 1–482.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-5172-4_1Susan A. Bandes The heart has its reasons: Examining the strange persistence of the American death penalty, (): 21–52.https://doi.org/10.1016/S1059-4337(07)00402-4

The Death Penalty in America

The Death Penalty in America

The Death Penalty in America. Edited by Hugo Adam Bedau. New York: Doubleday and Company, 1964. 584 pp. $1.95 paper

The Death Penalty in America. Edited by Hugo Adam Bedau. New York: Doubleday and Company, 1964. 584 pp. $1.95 paper Richard C. C. Kim Richard C. C. Kim Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Church and State, Volume 7, Issue 1, Winter 1965, Pages 123–124, https://doi.org/10.1093/jcs/7.1.123 Published: 01 January 1965

The Movement to Abolish Capital Punishment in America, 1787–1861

The Movement to Abolish Capital Punishment in America, 1787–1861

The Movement to Abolish Capital Punishment in America, 1787-1861

INTEREST in the history of American feminism, temperance, abolitionism, and utopianism, has obscured the fact that for a generation before the Civil War the movement to abolish the death penalty was an important reform enterprise which aroused violent debate over the ultimate source of justice, the degree of human responsibility, the fallibility of the courts, the progress or decline of society, the metaphysical origins of good and evil, and the authority of the Bible. Although seldom mentioned in the standard social and intellectual histories of the period,' the antigallows movement won the support of prominent ministers, reformers, and men of letters and for over thirty years was a subject of heated controversy in the legislatures of many Northern states. Moreover, the movement was moderately successful, since three of these legislatures became the first governments in modern times to abolish the death penalty permanently. The purpose of this essay is to examine the background and implications of the capital punishment controversy in America and to trace the history of the movement before the Civil War. Infliction of the death penalty for certain secular crimes, such as murder and robbery, was associated historically with the rise of the modern state, whose sovereign was both authorized and obligated to maintain peace within his particular domain.2 In England the number of capital crimes multiplied in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as the increasing power of the state blurred the ancient distinction between public and private offenses. Executions were frequently justified by the rational arguments that they prevented victims from committing further crimes and that they served as a deterrent to potential criminals. But though the death penalty was rationally defended as a means for protecting the king's peace, it was never entirely