death sentences

English Today ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 44-47
Author(s):  
bob blaisdell

more tales from a new york writing class. the axe split two ways: half of us against the death penalty, half for it. this i found out by asking the remedial writing-and-reading class to explain on paper how and when they arrived at their current opinion on capital punishment. with most of the students being from overseas, i thought it was important for each to explain his or her culture's or religion's or country's views on the death penalty. then we read – with those opinions and histories staring us in the face – claude gueux.

Author(s):  
Emma Kaufman

Dignity serves many purposes in American law, but the concept is perhaps most vital in decisions on the death penalty. Since 1972, when the Supreme Court briefly banned capital punishment, American jurists have debated whether death sentences violate “the dignity of man.” These legal debates describe dignity as an innately human attribute and a core feature of human nature. In practice, however, courts employ dignity to instantiate a particular model of democratic governance. Legal cases on the death penalty treat dignity as a fundamentally relational concept, less a characteristic of personhood than a state of existing in dialogue with the law. This vision of dignity is more institutional and alienable than conceptions that emphasize unwavering worth. Ultimately, the approach to dignity in death penalty cases displaces an individuated account of the term and raises a basic question about whether dignity can exist in the absence of the law.


Author(s):  
Bin Liang ◽  
Hong Lu ◽  
Jianhong Liu

Despite rich literature on public opinion on capital punishment, only a few studies examined people’s death penalty support within specific contexts. None have explored if correlates that influence people’s opinion would hold the same effect in general questions and specific case scenarios. Similarly, the Marshall hypotheses have not been tested with specific crime scenarios. Based on a sample of 1,077 students in a quasiexperimental design, this study contrasts Chinese students’ death penalty opinion in general questions with a specific crime scenario, and tests the Marshall hypotheses with the latter. Compared to their support in general questions, students’ support for death sentences dropped significantly in the specific crime scenario. Multivariate analyses showed that different factors influenced people’s decisions in the general questions and in the specific case, and respondents’ choices of preferred punishment in the specific crime scenario failed to lend support to the Marshall hypotheses.


1969 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Greenberg ◽  
Jack Himmelstein

The latest execution in the United States occurred on June 2, 1967. Since then, death sentences have been stayed as courts across the country consider a legal challenge to the constitution ality of the death penalty. This paper describes the distorting effect that capital punishment has had on the legal system and the discriminations in the way it has been administered—for example, in rape cases it is applied almost exclusively to Negroes convicted of raping while women. The legal attack focuses on those procedural vices that reflect the arbitrariness and irration ality inherent in capital punishment. Courts are being called on to subject the death penalty to a reasoned examination and to test its validity against the commands of the Constitution, while the number of persons on the nation's death rows continues to grow past the 500 mark. This confrontation on the issue of capital punishment is part of the more general conflict taking place over how society may best cope with its problems without resort to violence.


2008 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 83
Author(s):  
Musleh Herry

<p>The problem of capital punishment in Indonesia as a country which has Pancasila philosophy is still a discussion which caused many different views until now. This problem arises because it is considered to be "violating" human rights, it is seen from the history of punishment that the death penalty was born together with the birth of man on the face of the earth, with the legal culture of "retalism" like wolves eating wolves, in which the criminal is based on the theory of absolute revenge (absolute theory) .The death penalty in terms of Islamic religion (Shari'at Islam) death is a penalty stipulated by Shari'a Islam with the decree of Allah SWT which can not be inviolable by anybody.Only what we need to learn in this case is the terms of its implementation so as not to easily impose the judgment of the law. means that according to Islamic views, the death penalty is merupaka n criminal offenses that are formally required to be held. The death penalty that is done according to the correct Islamic religious provisions is not: contrary to the philosophy of the State, is not: contrary to the elements of Belief in God Almighty, because Islamic sha'at is a Shari'ah based on Belief in the One Supreme.</p><p> </p><p>Masalah hukuman pidana mati di Indonesia sebagai suatu negara yang mempunyai falsafah Pancasila, masih merupakan suatu pembicaraan yang banyak menimbulkan berbagai perbedaan pandangan sampai sekarang Permasalahan ini muncul karena dianggap "melanggar'' hak asasi manusia. Ditinjau dari sejarah pemidanaan, bahwa hukuman mati lahir bersamasama dengan lahirnya manusia di muka bumi ini, dengan budaya hukum "retalisme" bagaikan serigala memakan serigala. Mada masa itu berlaku pidana berdasarkan pada teori pembalasan mutlak (teori absolut). Hukuman mati ditinjau dari segi agama Islam (Syari'at Islam) sudah jelas bahwa hukuman mati itu adalah pidana yang ditetapkan oleh Syari' at Islam dengan dekrit Allah Swt yang sama sekali tidak boleh diganggu gugat oleh siapapun juga. Hanya yang perlu kita pelajari dalam hal ini adalah syarat-syarat pelaksanaannya agar tidak dengan mudah menjatuhkan putusan hukum itu. Hal ini berarti bahwa menurut tinjauan agama Islam, maka hukuman mati itu adalah merupakan pidana yang secara resmi perlu diadakan. Hukuman mati yang dilakukan menurut ketentuan-ketentuan agama Islam yang benar adalah tidak: bertentang dengan falsafah Negara, tidak: berlawanan pula dengan unsur-unsur Ketuhanan Yang Maha Esa, karena syai'at Islam mempakan syari'at yang berdasarkan Ketuhanan Yang Maha Esa.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-105
Author(s):  
Christian Caron

Capital punishment remains legal in most U.S. states even though only a small number of them regularly impose it. I attribute the persistence of death penalty statutes to the existence of direct democracy institutions in about half the states. Applying a longitudinal research design that leverages annual estimates of state death penalty opinion, I show that these institutions strengthen the connection between public opinion and capital punishment’s legality, indicating that they foster policy responsiveness. By extension, because citizens have generally favored capital punishment, I find that direct democracy states are more likely to have the death penalty. I also demonstrate that direct democracy increases the likelihood that policy will be congruent with majority opinion, especially in states where opinion leans strongly in one direction. The representation-enhancing effect of direct democracy, however, does not extend to the punishment’s application, as measured by states’ issuance of death sentences.


2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 435-466
Author(s):  
James Campbell

In December 1993, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council ruled in Pratt and Morgan v. The Attorney General for Jamaica that excessive delay in the enforcement of death sentences—defined with some caveats as more than 5 years from the time of conviction to execution—was “inhuman” and therefore unconstitutional. The Judicial Committee also reversed earlier rulings in finding that the 5 year time frame for appeals should include those delays that resulted from legal proceedings initiated by prisoners themselves. The result was to clear death row cells across most of the British Caribbean, with the capital sentences of more than 100 condemned prisoners commuted in Jamaica alone. Pratt also ushered in a new era of Judicial Committee activism in Caribbean death penalty cases that resulted in a series of further safeguards against executions, including the abolition of mandatory death sentences. The cumulative effect of these judgments is that there has not been an execution in Jamaica since 1988, even though capital punishment remains legal and, amidst persistently high rates of violent crime across the region, political support for a resumption of hanging is strong.


Lethal State ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 84-110
Author(s):  
Seth Kotch

This chapter explains how executive clemency—the state governor’s power to reduce a death penalty to a lesser sentence—helped make capital punishment function in North Carolina. With mandatory death sentences for four serious crimes (murder, rape, burglary, and arson), judges had no choice but to pronounce a death penalty upon conviction. This left it up to the governor to decide whether or not the convicted person would be executed. Although this power was reserved for the governor, it was soon transferred to a parole board, which reviewed each death sentence and invited community comment. This process most benefitted teenagers and women. Perversely, more African Americans received commutations than whites because of the high rate of error in their trials.


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