Includes bibliographical references (p. 471-500) and index.

Background and developments -- Part I. The laws, the crimes, and the executions. Offenses punishable by death ; Proposed state death penalty legislation, 1994 ; Criminal homicide ; Death row prisoners ; The status of the death penalty worldwide -- Part II. The controversy over public support for the death penalty : the death penalty versus life imprisonment. Hardening of the attitudes : Americans' views on the death penalty / Phoebe C. Ellsworth, Samuel R. Gross -- Sentencing for life : Americans embrace alternatives to the death penalty / Richard C. Dieter -- Part III. The controversy over deterrence and incapacitation. Murder, capital punishment, and deterrence : a review of the literature / William C. Bailey, Ruth D. Peterson -- A national study of the Furman-commuted inmates : assessing the threat to society from capital offenders / James W. Marquart, Jonathan R. Sorensen -- Prison homicides, recidivist murder, and life imprisonment / H.A. Bedau -- Part IV. The controversy over constitutionality. Furman v. Georgia, 1972 : the death penalty as administered is unconstitutional ; Gregg v. Georgia, 1976 : the death penalty is not per se unconstitutional ; Woodson v. North Carolina, 1976 : mandatory death penalties are unconstitutional ; Coker v. Georgia, 1977 : the death penalty for rape is unconstitutional ; Constitutional interpretation, history, and the death penalty / David A.J. Richards -- 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 / H.A. Bedau -- Part V. The controversy over race and class. McCleskey v. Kemp, 1987 : a racially disproportionate death penalty system is not unconstitutional ; Death penalty sentencing : research indicates pattern of racial disparities / U.S. General Accounting Office -- Counsel for the poor : the death sentence not for the worst crime but for the worst lawyer / Stephen B. Bright -- Part VI. Controversies from prosecution to execution. The deadliest D.A. / Tina Rosenberg -- How American juries decide death penalty cases : the Capital Jury Project / Joseph L. Hoffman -- Innocence and the death penalty : assessing the danger of mistaken executions -- An appeal for clemency : the case of Harold Lamont Otey / Larry Myers -- To see or not to see : televising executions. Why KQED should win / Henry Schwarzschild ; Why KQED should lose / Robert R. Bryan -- Witness to another execution / Susan Blaustein -- Millions misspent : what politicians don't say about the high costs of the death penalty / Richard C. Dieter -- Part VII. The death penalty : for and against. The New Testament and moral arguments for capital punishment / H. Wayne House -- Noah's covenant, the New Testament, and Christian social order / John Howard Yoder -- The death penalty once more / Ernest van den Haag -- A reply to van den Haag / H.A. Bedau.

In The Death Penalty in America: Current Controversies, Hugo Adam Bedau, one of our preeminent scholars on the subject, provides a comprehensive source-book 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 (1982) 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.

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