Escaping the Guillotine: The Gap between the Crimes Punishable by Death and the Effective Death Sentences (France, 20th Century)

2019 ◽  
Vol 80 ◽  
pp. 265-281
Author(s):  
Nicolas Picard
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Death Penalty ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
Judicial System ◽  
Place Of Death ◽  
The People ◽  
Death Sentences ◽  
Statistical Report ◽  
Mitigating Circumstances

A statistical report of 1906 evaluated the place of death sentences in the judicial system, with the main purpose of supporting the bill of abolition of the death penalty (finally rejected). This report showed the negligible role of the capital punishment in the penal repression – as if the guillotine had already fallen into abeyance. According to the Penal Code of 1810, aggravated murders (premeditated murders, murders accompanied by another crime, murders of a public officer), parricides, poisonings, arsons of houses, as well as complicity in and attempt of such crimes, were all punishable by the guillotine. However, a large implementation of the principle of mitigating circumstances allowed to avoid the enforcement of death penalty. Moreover, two thirds of the people sentenced to death were pardoned, often with the support of the juries. The substitute penalty was a perpetual imprisonment, but this “perpetuity” became shorter and shorter after 1945.

Capital Punishment in the Post-Civil War Years

2020 ◽  
pp. 31-62
Author(s):  
David M. Doyle ◽  
Liam O’Callaghan
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Death Penalty ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Law And Order ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Death Sentences

This chapter examines the application of the death penalty in the first ten years of the Free State. Historians to date have argued that the relatively high number of civilian executions in the early post-independence years was symptomatic of Cumann nGaedheal’s broader anxieties with issues of law and order. This chapter revises that assessment and argues that those convicted of murder in the civilian courts in these years were no more likely to have their sentence carried out than those convicted in subsequent eras. By closely examining the decision-making process leading to the execution or commutation of death sentences, particularly the role of judges and government officials, this chapter argues that the death penalty, as imposed by the ordinary courts, was an example of the government’s efforts to restore peacetime civilian norms to the criminal justice system and was not used to any political end.

Capital Punishment

2018 ◽  
pp. 153-186
Author(s):  
Sandra Fredman
Keyword(s):  
Death Penalty ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Original Intent ◽  
Living Tree ◽  
Legislative Power ◽  
Fair Procedure ◽  
The Cross

This chapter applies the cross-cutting themes in Chapters 1–5 to the highly contested issue of the death penalty. It begins by considering the differences in constitutional texts, and particularly the ambiguity as to whether the death penalty is permitted. This requires judges to apply their interpretive theories. Original intent, natural meaning, and living tree approaches have all been relied on to achieve a mosaic of different and vehemently contested approaches. The chapter then considers how courts in different jurisdictions have addressed three main issues: whether a fair procedure can be found which justifies the death penalty; whether there are good penological justifications; and the role of substantive values, such as human dignity. The chapter highlights the ways in which courts approach the demarcation between judicial and legislative power; their use of comparative materials; and the increasing interconnectedness of the approach of different jurisdictions to the death penalty.

Death and Dignity in American Law

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Kaufman
Keyword(s):  
Death Penalty ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
Basic Question ◽  
Legal Cases ◽  
Death Sentences ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Core Feature ◽  
American Law ◽  
Relational Concept ◽  
The Law

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.

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?

The Death Penalty — Response

1991 ◽  
Vol 25 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 512-523
Author(s):  
Leon Sheleff
Keyword(s):  
Death Penalty ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Due Process ◽  
Statistical Data ◽  
Judicial System ◽  
Life Imprisonment

One of the most disturbing aspects of examining the extensive capital punishment debate, with its clear indications of discriminatory practices, ambiguous judicial directives, undeniable miscarriages of justice, controversial statistical data, and inept, inconsistent and/or unjust implementation, is the constantly gnawing thought that if this is the situation vis-à-vis what is considered the most extreme penalty with its special super due process, then what is happening in the cases of lesser penalties. These latter cases of petty thieves sentenced to years of incarceration for relatively minor delinquencies, of accused inadequately defended without appeals being lodged within the judicial system or public interest shown, of compulsory life imprisonment without parole, no doubt reflect all of the faults and errors of capital punishment.

SYNTHESIS OF DOCUMENTAL AND ARTISTIC IN THE WORKS OF ISSA BOTASHEV

2020 ◽  
pp. 94-98
Author(s):  
Alena Mustafaevna Sarbasheva
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Spiritual Culture ◽  
The People ◽  
Historical Figures ◽  
The Creation

The article examines the creativity of the Balkar playwright Issa Botashev, special attention is paid to the syn-thesis of documentary and artistic, inherent in the creative manner of the writer. An artistic study of the fate of historical figures, events, documentary facts in the life of the people is conditioned by the cognitive needs of the author and contemporary reader. The factual basis of the plays of I. Botashev contributes to the creation of an artistic model of reality, allows you to convey the essence of characters and depicted events, life reliability. The role of the playwright in the revival of the spiritual culture of the Balkars in the second half of the 20th century is noted.

Testing Death Penalty Opinions With General Questions and A Specific Case Scenario: Potential Lessons From China

2021 ◽  
pp. 0306624X2110668
Author(s):  
Bin Liang ◽  
Hong Lu ◽  
Jianhong Liu
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Death Penalty ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
Multivariate Analyses ◽  
Chinese Students ◽  
Case Scenario ◽  
Death Sentences ◽  
Crime Scenarios ◽  
Death Penalty Opinion

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.

Varieties of Attack on the Death Penalty

1969 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Greenberg ◽  
Jack Himmelstein
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Death Penalty ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
The United States ◽  
Legal Challenge ◽  
Death Sentences ◽  
The Way

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.

scholarly journals Propositions for the Development of the Public Grievances Commission (A Korean Style Ombudsman)

1995 ◽  
Vol 10 (0) ◽  
pp. 155-172
Author(s):  
Kwang-Il Kim
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
National Assembly ◽  
Relative Ease ◽  
The Public ◽  
Basic Law ◽  
The People ◽  
The Government ◽  
Regular Session

The ombusdsman originated in Sweden as a substitution for the Parliament practiced a role of superintending the administration in its beginning, but now the office operates both as a commissioner of the people and the arbiter between the government and individual and also as an institution aims at the realization of efficient redress and justice. The office is expected to practice a function of disposition of the complaints on the principle of equity with relative ease and promptitude. After the ombudsman had originated in Sweden in 1809 as a Parliamentary commissioner Finland adopted the office in 1920, but the interests in the office became widespread only after the mid-20th century and at present about 50 countries have introduced the institution. In case of our country the Public Grievances Commission thereafter described as PGC), Korean style ombudsman, was inaugurated in 4 April 1994 under the provision of the "Basic Law about Administrative Regulations and Civil Affairs Administration (hereafter described as the "Basic Law.") that has passed in a regular session of the National Assembly of 1993.

scholarly journals La Peine de Mort et le Droit à la Vie.

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 4322-4326
Author(s):  
Louis Mendy
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Death Penalty ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
Universal Declaration ◽  
Large Majority ◽  
Moral Duty ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The People ◽  
The World

Death Penalty has been practiced since human beings decided to constitute nations and live in countries. It was institutionalized to get rid of people who were supposed to be harmful to societies. However, proponents of Capital Punishment do not seem to understand that people may be executed because of their evil acts, but their death will never wipe evil out of their societies. Since the ratification of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by a very large majority of countries in the world, the legality and legitimacy of Death Penalty have been constantly questioned by human rights defenders. Even the three major and revealed religions: Christianity, Judaism and Islam recognize that life is a sacred right from God. For the people who are against Death Penalty, Capital Punishment is akin to a premeditated voluntary homicide by a government. Even if Death Penalty is considered as a deterrent in many societies, it has never been proven that it can stop people from committing murders. The abolition of Death Penalty is nowadays a moral duty for all governments. Even a moratorium is proposed to countries which have not abolished it yet. The tendency today is the total abolition of Capital Punishment in the world and its restoration by countries that have already abolished it is something unheard of, retrograde and senseless.

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