Authored by some of the leading death penalty scholars in the country, this book critically analyzes changes in capital punishment and its administration over the last quarter century and explores a wide variety of issues confronting the present and future of the death penalty in America.
This book offers discussions on a host of fundamental questions of law, social policy, and morality about capital punishment. Containing the work of 25 contributors, this volume is a collection of 21 chapters addressing capital punishment public opinion, law and politics, the justice of the death penalty, the utility of the capital sanction, jury decision-making, defense counsel, race discrimination, mitigation theory, cost, habeas corpus, victims, the role of mental health professionals, death row, executive clemency, executions, and other issues.
James R. Acker and Charles S. Lanier teach at the University of Albany School of Criminal Justice (State University of New York). Robert M. Bohm teaches at the University of Central Florida, Department of Criminal Justice and Legal Studies.