scholarly journals Capital Sentencing: The Effect of Adding Aggravators to Death Penalty Statutes in Pennsylvania

2004 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Schultz Newman ◽  
Eric Rayz ◽  
Scott Eric Friedman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Death Penalty ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
Statistical Study ◽  
The United States ◽  
Capital Sentencing ◽  
Detailed History ◽  
Current State ◽  
History Of

The birthplace of the American republic—the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania—has historically been at the forefront of the capital punishment legislation in the United States. It was the first colony in the Union to abolish the death penalty for all crimes with the exception of murder. It was the first to set forth a statutory distinction between different degrees of criminal homicide, confining imposition of capital punishment to the most chilling form of this crime—“willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing.” With this storied history in mind, we have undertaken the task of examining the current state of the death penalty in the Commonwealth. Hence, in Part II of this Article, we set forth a detailed history of the capital sentencing scheme in Pennsylvania. Part III undertakes a statistical study of the imposition of the death penalty in the Commonwealth from 1978 until 1997. In Part IV, we conclude by summing up our general observations.

The Rise, Fall, and Afterlife of the Death Penalty in the United States

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 299-315
Author(s):  
Carol S. Steiker ◽  
Jordan M. Steiker
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Death Penalty ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
Justice System ◽  
The United States ◽  
History Of ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
History Of Race ◽  
Western Democracies

This review addresses four key issues in the modern (post-1976) era of capital punishment in the United States. First, why has the United States retained the death penalty when all its peer countries (all other developed Western democracies) have abolished it? Second, how should we understand the role of race in shaping the distinctive path of capital punishment in the United States, given our country's history of race-based slavery and slavery's intractable legacy of discrimination? Third, what is the significance of the sudden and profound withering of the practice of capital punishment in the past two decades? And, finally, what would abolition of the death penalty in the United States (should it ever occur) mean for the larger criminal justice system?

Public Opinion and the French Capital Punishment Debate of 1908

2014 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 575-609 ◽  
Author(s):  
James M. Donovan
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Death Penalty ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
Justice System ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Public ◽  
Lower House ◽  
Democratic Control ◽  
History Of

Academics have traditionally associated capital punishment most closely with authoritarian regimes. They have assumed an incompatibility between the death penalty and the presumably humane values of modern liberal democracy. However, recent scholarship on the United States by David Garland has suggested that a considerable degree of direct democratic control over a justice system actually tends to favor the retention and application of the death penalty. The reason why the United States has retained capital punishment after it has been abolished in other Western nations is not because public opinion is more supportive of the death penalty in America than in Europe or in Canada. Rather, it is because popular control over the justice system is greater in the United States than in other countries and this strengthens the influence of America's retentionist majority. However, the experience of the United States in this regard has not been unique. The same link between democratic control and retention of the death penalty can be seen in the history of the effort to abolish capital punishment in France. In 1908, a bill in the Chamber of Deputies (the lower house of the French Parliament) to abolish capital punishment was defeated, in large part because of strong opposition from the public. In 1981, majority public opinion in France still favored retention of the death penalty, but in that year, the nation's Parliament defied popular sentiment and outlawed the ultimate punishment. Historians have so far provided little insight into why abolition succeeded in 1981 when it failed in 1908. The explanation for the different outcome appears to have been the greater degree of influence public opinion exerted over the nation's justice system at the turn of the twentieth century than at its end.

scholarly journals Literature and the Remains of the Death Penalty

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peggy Kamuf
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Death Penalty ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
The United States ◽  
Main Question ◽  
Poetic Language ◽  
Modern History ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
History Of ◽  
Poetic Work

This book pursues Derrida’s assertion, in The Death Penalty, Volume I, that “the modern history of the institution named literature in Europe over the last three or four centuries is contemporary with and indissociable from a contestation of the death penalty.” The main question this book poses is: How does literature contest the death penalty today, particularly in the United States where it remains the last of its kind, a Christian-inspired death penalty in what professes to be a democracy? What resources do fiction, narrative, and poetic language supply in the age of the remains of the death penalty? These are among the questions that guide the analyses of four literary works, each a depiction or an account of an execution, in the search for deconstructive leverage on the concepts that prop up capital punishment. Different pertinent features are isolated in these texts: the “mysteries” of literary or poetic witness; the publicness of punishment in an era of secrecy around the death penalty; the undecidable difference between death by capital punishment and by suicide—a difference that Kant enforces and that Derrida contests; and even the collapse of the distinction between the sovereign powers to put to death and to pardon, a possibility that is shown up by a poetic work when, performatively, it “plays the law.” In relation to the death penalties they represent, these literary survivals may be seen as the ashes or remains of the phantasm that the death penalty has always been, the phantasm of calculating and thus ending finitude.

Diminishing Support for the Death Penalty

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amelia Courtney Hritz ◽  
Caisa Elizabeth Royer ◽  
Valerie P. Hans
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Death Penalty ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
The United States ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Jury Selection ◽  
Death Qualification ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Current State ◽  
Capital Jury

This chapter presents and analyzes the current state of law and research on the capital jury. First, it presents the legal framework for capital jury selection and research on the “death-qualified” jury, whose members are eligible to serve in a capital case. It also discusses research showing that the death-qualification process skews the composition of the capital jury so that it fails to represent the community and is more conviction-prone. Next, the chapter considers the contemporary death penalty in the United States, noting the challenge that comes from declining support for capital punishment and the need to select representative capital juries. The chapter concludes by discussing the implications of the current trends in support for the death penalty and research on capital juries.

scholarly journals ZAGADNIENIE KARY ŚMIERCI W STANACh ZJEDNOCZONYCH AMERYKI

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 115
Author(s):  
Wojciech Kwiatkowski
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Death Penalty ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
The United States ◽  
Legal Representation ◽  
Capital Trials ◽  
The Usa ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of

THE ISSUE OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN THE UNITED STATES Summary This article describes the issue of capital punishment in the United States, including the history of the death penalty as administered in the USA and the main court rulings on this matter (e.g. the definition of categories of exemption or restrictions on the methods or conditions of execution). The article also describes numerous efforts (mostly on the grounds of court rulings) to improve the quality of legal representation and enhance the fairness of capital trials and appeals for defendants facing the death penalty. The article concludes with statistics which show that states with capital punishment on the statute book do not generally have lower murder or crime rates and that since 1973 138 persons sentenced to death have been acquitted in outcome of the discovery and proof of miscarriage of justice.

The Use of the Death Penalty

1969 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter C. Reckless
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Death Penalty ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
The United States ◽  
Death Sentence ◽  
Dramatic Reduction ◽  
Public Sentiment ◽  
Discernible Effect ◽  
The World ◽  
Important Trend

Undoubtedly the most important trend in capital punishment has been the dramatic reduction in the number of offenses statutorily punishable by the death penalty. About two hundred years ago England had over two hundred offenses calling for the death penalty; it now has four. Some countries have abolished capital punishment completely; a few retain it for unusual offenses only. The trend throughout the world, even in the great number of countries that retain the death penalty, is definitely toward a de facto, not a de jure, form of abolition. In the United States, where the death penalty is possible in three-fourths of the states, the number of executions has declined from 199 in 1935 to an average of less than three in the last four years. This change is related to public sentiment against the use of the death penalty and even more directly to the unwillingness of juries and courts to impose a first-degree sentence. The increasing willingness of governors to commute a death sentence and of courts to hear appeals also contributes to this decline. A review of the evidence indicates that use of the death penalty has no discernible effect on the commission of capital offenses (especially murder).

Public Opinion and Capital Punishment: A Close Examination of the Views of Abolitionists and Retentionists

1983 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 116-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phoebe C. Ellsworth ◽  
Lee Ross
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Death Penalty ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
Due Process ◽  
Response Rate ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Supreme ◽  
Self Image ◽  
Legal Implications

A survey designed to examine the attitudinal and informational bases of people's opinions about the death penalty was administered to 500 Northern California residents (response rate = 96 percent). Of these, 58.8 percent were proponents of capital punishment, 30.8 percent were opponents, and 10.4 percent were undecided. When asked whether they favored mandatory, discretionary, or no death penalty for various crimes, respondents tended to treat these options as points on a scale of strength of belief, with mandatory penalties favored for the most serious crimes, rather than considering the questions of objectivity and fairness that have influenced the United States Supreme Court's considerations of these options. For no crime did a majority favor execution of all those convicted, even when a mandatory penalty was endorsed. Respondents were generally ignorant on factual issues related to the death penalty, and indicated that if their factual beliefs (in deterrence) were incorrect, their attitude would not be influenced. When asked about their reasons for favoring or opposing the death penalty, respondents tended to endorse all reasons consistent with their attitudes, indicating that the attitude does not stem from a set of reasoned beliefs, but may be an undifferenti ated, emotional reflection of one's ideological self-image. Opponents favored due process guarantees more than did Proponents. A majority of respondents said they would need more evidence to convict if a case was capital. Theoretical and legal implications of the results are discussed.

Russia and Europe: historical lessons

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimir I. Vinokurov
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
The United States ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Bilateral Relations ◽  
Current State ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Will ◽  
Otto Von Bismarck ◽  
The Military

Тhe article deals with the results of the Patriotic War of 1812 and the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945. The analysis of these largest wars in the history of Russian-European relations is carried out, their comparison is made, their nature, character and driving forces are revealed. On the basis of this, it is concluded that both sides have not made the proper conclusions: Europe — in terms of the expediency and consequences of an attack on Russia, thereby violating the will of the iron Chancellor Otto von Bismarck: "Make alliances with anyone, start any wars, but never touch the Russians." Russia — timely opening and preparation for the upcoming tests in relations with Europe. Against the background of more than 200 years of history, the current state of relations between Russia and Europe, which has reached a low level, is considered. Although the leading European states, Germany and France, have not stopped political contacts with Russia, but the content of these contacts has become significantly poorer, the format has narrowed, and the tone has sharpened. In the military sphere, Europe in the Russian direction follows in principle the same course as the United States. Within the framework of NATO, European countries, led by the United States, have taken a number of steps that have restored, so far at a symbolic level, the military confrontation with Russia in eastern Europe. Moscow, for its part, has stepped up its own military activities near its western borders. As a result, Europe has ceased to be the island of security that it remained for the previous quarter of a century. This does not mean, of course, that relations between Russia and European countries are ending. In fact, Russia's practical needs require easing tensions with Europe as its largest trade and economic partner. With this in mind, Moscow has achieved some success in replacing the almost non-existentties with Brussels with meaningful bilateral relations with some EU countries. Despite the fact that the European Union's foreign policy apparatus is unable to form a unified geopolitical, economic and cultural front against Moscow, there is every reason to believe that the Kremlin intends to be guided by this strategy of bilateral relations in the coming years.

The Politics of the Death Penalty

2009 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 925-928
Author(s):  
Marie Gottschalk
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Death Penalty ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
The United States ◽  
High Point ◽  
Opinion Polls

The death penalty is declining in the United States. The number of people executed each year has fallen by about half since the late 1990s. Opinion polls show support for capital punishment is waning. It now stands at about two-thirds, down from a high point of 86% in 1995, according to Gallup polls (p. 173).

Capital Punishment

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Kaplan
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Death Penalty ◽  
State Government ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
The United States ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Criminal Offenses ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
Criminal Charge ◽  
Modern Era

The death penalty, also referred to as capital punishment, is the process whereby a state government orders a sentence of death for a person found guilty of a particular set of criminal offenses. In the United States, the primary capital crime is first-degree murder with an additional aggravating factor, usually called a “special circumstance” (e.g., murder of a law enforcement officer). Capital punishment is a complex process that includes a criminal charge, an involved legal process, sentencing, special “death row” prison housing, post-conviction appeals, and the ultimate execution of the defendant. Persons sentenced to death are called condemned. Execution refers specifically to the process in which the defendant is killed. Capital punishment has been practiced throughout human history, with considerable variation across eras and regions. In the last 50 years, the use of capital punishment has declined across the globe, and there are relatively few countries that use it regularly as a form of punishment, most notably China. Some countries have abolished the death penalty completely, such as all member states of the European Union. Most other countries have seen a decline in its use. For instance, only 31 out of 50 states in the United States currently have death penalty statutes (there are also federal death penalty statutes, which are rarely used). The other 19 U.S. states are referred to as “abolitionist.” The “modern era” of capital punishment in the United States was spurred by two important Supreme Court cases. The Furman v. Georgia (1972) decision ruled that arbitrariness in the application of the death penalty deemed its use unconstitutional. The reversal of that ruling four years later in Gregg v. Georgia (1976) reestablished the death penalty in America, and experts refer to the modern era as 1976 to the present.

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