The Death Penalty in America

Front Cover
Hugo Adam Bedau
Oxford University Press, May 28, 1998 - Social Science - 544 pages
InThe Death Penalty in America: Current Controversies, Hugo Adam Bedau, one of our preeminent scholars on the subject,provides a comprehensive sourcebook on the death penalty, making the process of informed consideration not only possible but fascinating as well. No mere revision of the third edition of The Death Penalty in America--which the New York Times praised as "the most complete, well-edited and comprehensive collection of readings on the pros and cons of the death penalty"--this volume brings together an entirely new selection of 40 essays and includes updated statistical and research data, recent Supreme Court decisions, and the best current contributions to the debate over capital punishment. From the status of the death penalty worldwide to current attitudes of Americans toward convicted killers, from legal arguments challenging the constitutionality of the death penalty to moral arguments enlisting the New Testament in support of it, from controversies over the role of race and class in the judicial system to proposals to televise executions, Bedau gathers readings that explore all the most compelling aspects of this most compelling issue.
 

Contents

TABLES
Capital Crimes in the United States by Executions and Numbers of Jurisdictions 1965
Average Time Served Under Death Sentence 197794
Prisoners Executed by Jurisdiction in Rank Order 193095 and 197795
Offenses Punishable by Death
Criminal Homicide
Murder Victims by Type of Weapon Used 198993
Death Row Prisoners
Why the Death Penalty Is a Cruel and Unusual Punishment
Habeas Corpus and Other Constitutional Controversies
International Human Rights Law and the Death Penalty in America
A Racially Disproportionate Death Penalty System Is
Research Indicates Pattern of Racial Disparities
The Death Sentence Not for the Worst Crime but for the Worst Lawyer
A Good Murder
The Capital Jury Project

Prisoners on Death Row by Jurisdiction and Type of Removal 197394
The Status of the Death Penalty Worldwide
The Death Penalty versus
Americans Views on the Death Penalty
Americans Embrace Alternatives to the Death
The Controversy over Deterrence and Incapacitation
A Review of the Literature
Assessing the Threat to Society from
Prison Homicides Recidivist Murder and Life Imprisonment
The Death Penalty as Administered Is Unconstitutional
The Death Penalty Is Not Per Se Unconstitutional
Mandatory Death Penalties Are Unconstitutional
Constitutional Interpretation History and the Death Penalty
Assessing the Danger of Mistaken Executions
The Case of Harold Lamont Otey
Televising Executions
Witness to Another Execution
What Politicians Dont Say About the High Costs of the Death Penalty
The New Testament and Moral Arguments for Capital Punishment
Noahs Covenant the New Testament and Christian Social Order
The Death Penalty Once More
A Reply to van den Haag
BIBLIOGRAPHY
TABLE OF CASES
Copyright

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About the author (1998)

About the Author: Hugo Adam Bedau is Austin Fletcher Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University.

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