America's Experiment with Capital Punishment: Reflections on the Past, Present and Future of the Ultimate Penal Sanction

1999 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marian J. Borg ◽  
James R. Acker ◽  
Robert M. Bohm ◽  
Charles S. Lanier
Keyword(s):  
Capital Punishment ◽  
The Past ◽  
Penal Sanction

The Value of Life

1977 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marlene W. Lehtinen
Keyword(s):  
Death Penalty ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
State Policy ◽  
Value Of Life ◽  
Careful Examination ◽  
General Deterrence ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past

Criminologists have generally attacked capital punishment and have argued for its abolition. They contend (1) that there is no evidence showing the superior general deterrent effectiveness of the death penalty, (2) that the death penalty has been applied discriminatorily in the past, (3) that innocent persons may be executed, (4) that the public does not want a constitutionally acceptable form of the death penalty, (5) that the death penalty does not allow rehabilitation, and (6) that the application of the death penalty is too costly. A careful examination of these arguments reveals their inherent limitations and weaknesses. This paper outlines the benefits to be gained from systematic employ ment of the death penalty—greater general deterrence and conformity to law, strengthening of taboos generally, and emphasis on the value of life—and argues for systematic use of the death penalty as a part of rational state policy for the greater protection of society and a net saving of innocent lives.

scholarly journals Research of Criminal Punishment in Russian Dissertation Theses: Key Trends in 2010-2019

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 825-836
Author(s):  
Alexei Kibalnik ◽  
Pavel Volosyuk ◽  
Rustam Abdulgaziev
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
Criminal Punishment ◽  
Functional Theory ◽  
The Past ◽  
Legal Nature ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Positive Feature ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Criminal Legislation

The article aims to reveal key trends in the studies of the problems of criminal punishment based on the analysis of Russian dissertation theses in the past decade (2010–2019). The authors stress that the problems of punishment are «eternal» for Russian and Western doctrines of criminal law, although there is some difference in their research trends. The authors conclude that Russian doctrine preserves continuity in its definition of punishment as a major category of criminal law, as well as of its attributes and goals. In 1990–2000s there were some attempts to renounce the penal nature of punishment. In the past decades this «bias» has been overcome and practically all authors recognize the priority of the penal character (content) of criminal punishment. At the same time, the doctrine incorporated new ideas regarding the understanding of the goals of punishment, their hierarchy and the actual possibilities of achieving them. The authors note that the positive feature of the Russian doctrine is the substantiation of the «functional» theory of building a system of punishments in criminal legislation. On the other hand, researchers have come to a disappointing conclusion regarding the breach in the orderly structure of the system of punishments. The analysis of Russian dissertation theses has shown that in 2010–2019 most attention was focused on «final» punishments (capital punishment and life imprisonment), imprisonment for a certain period of time, some punishments not connected with the deprivation of liberty (limitation of liberty, obligatory work). The authors point out that there remains a discrepancy in the understanding of the legal nature, purpose and effectiveness of these types of punishment (primarily, capital punishment, which is preserved in criminal legislation).

scholarly journals Forty Years of Death: The Past, Present, and Future of the Death Penalty in South Carolina (Still Arbitrary after All These Years)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
John H. Blume ◽  
Lyndsey S. Vann
Keyword(s):  
South Carolina ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Gender Bias ◽  
Death Penalty ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Looking Back

11 Duke Journal of Constitutional Law & Public Policy 183 (2016)Forty years ago, the Supreme Court of the United States deemed constitutional new death penalty laws intended to minimize the arbitrariness which led the Court to invalidate all capital sentencing statutes four years earlier in Furman v. Georgia. Over the last four decades the Court has — time and again — attempted to regulate the “machinery of death.” Looking back over the Court’s work, many observers, including two current Supreme Court justices, have questioned whether the modern death penalty has lived up to expectations set by the Court in the 1970s or if, despite 40 years of labor, the American death penalty continues to be administered in an unconstitutionally arbitrary manner. This Article presents data from South Carolina’s forty-year experiment with capital punishment and concludes that the administration of the death penalty in that state is still riddled with error and infected with racial and gender bias. It is — in short — still arbitrary after all these years. The authors maintain that the only true cure it to abolish South Carolina’s death penalty, although they do argue that lesser steps including additional safeguards and procedure may limit, but will not eliminate, some of the arbitrariness and bias which are present in the current imposition of South Carolina’s most extreme punishment.

Good government and the historian

1998 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 415-424
Author(s):  
R. C. van Caenegem
Keyword(s):  
Capital Punishment ◽  
Political Freedom ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Economic Prosperity ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
The Past ◽  
Form Of Government ◽  
Good Government ◽  
Modern Europe

The main constitutions with which medieval and modern Europe has experimented in the search for the best form of government are surveyed: most of them have now been relegated to the museum of legal antiques. However, constitutionalism and parliamentarianism proved to be permanent and are still highly valued acquisitions. The merits of a written constitution are discussed. This is followed by a presentation of the role of the nation state and its present embattled status. Can the past tell us what the best form of government is and, on the basis of the ‘Weber-thesis’, is there a link between political freedom and economic prosperity? The American controversy on capital punishment shows how the interpretation of the Constitution by the judicature can be a matter of life and death.

Capital Punishment: Objections from Principle and Practice

1983 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 407-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Lacey
Keyword(s):  
Death Penalty ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
Legal Issues ◽  
Constitutional Theory ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
The Past ◽  
Moral Position ◽  
Practical Politics ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Near Future

THE ISSUE OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT HAS PERHAPS BEEN MORE widely and publicly debated in this country than in any other. It has been a live political issue for well over a century, and the range of views represented by participants is as broad today as at any time in the past. Given the vast amount of literature – philosophical, legal, political and statistical – devoted to the subject, it is difficult to contribute to the debate in some more substantial way then merely by rehearsing well-known opposed positions. What I shall attempt to do in this paper is briefly to set out the positions of principle which might be taken up in arguments about the reintroduction of the death penalty, in the hope of clarifying the exact points of disagreement. Having done this, I shall argue for a particular moral position, before going on to consider some of the more specialized legal issues and the implications for constitutional theory which any form of reintroduction would raise. In the light of all these arguments, I shall finally draw some conclusions for both the debate of principle and the problem of practical politics with which the members of both Houses of Parliament are likely to be faced in the near future.

scholarly journals Religiosity Among Criminals With Death Pinalty: A Study Of Nusakambangan Prison

Dialog ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-264
Author(s):  
Novia Fetri Aliza ◽  
Putri Krisdiana ◽  
Yusri Hamzani
Keyword(s):  
Death Penalty ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Religious Study ◽  
Field Research ◽  
External Factors ◽  
Internal Factors ◽  
The Past ◽  
Internal And External Factors ◽  
And Behavior

This article discusses religiosity among criminals who pleaded guilty with death penalty at Lembaga Pemasyarakatan (Lapas) Permisan Nusakambangan. This focuses on two major issues; religiosity among the criminals and factors that contribute to the level of religiosity. The author carries out a field research by conducting interview and documentation. Subjects of the research are limited to three main categories; Muslim males in Indonesia, punished with capital punishment, and waiting for execution for more than ten years. The data obtained are analyzed using a theory of religiosity that is developed in religious study and psychology. The result of the study shows that the religiosity of the criminals who are punished with capital punishment are very good based on aspects of religiosity, such as; belief, Islamic law, and behavior of the criminals. Moreover, this religiosity is affected by internal and external factors. Internal factors relate to their confession of the past sins and the fear of death, while the external factors relate to the roles of their parents, children, and wife. Artikel ini membahas tentang religiusitas narapidana vonis hukuman mati di Lembaga Pemasyarakatan Permisan Nusakambangan. Terdapat dua pembahasan utama yang dikaji dalam artikel ini: kondisi religiusitas narapidana vonis hukuman mati yang saat ini mendekam di lapas Permisan dan faktor-faktor yang membentuk sikap religius mereka. Untuk mendapatkan data seputar dua pembahasan utama tersebut, penulis menggunakan jenis penelitian lapangan dengan metode wawancara dan dokumentasi. Subjek dalam pembahasan ini juga dibatasi pada tiga kategori, yaitu orang Indonesia yang beragama Islam, mendapatkan vonis hukuman mati, sedang dalam masa menunggu eksekusi mati lebih dari sepuluh tahun dan berjenis kelamin laki-laki. Pada tahap selanjutnya, informasi yang didapatkan pada subjek penelitian tersebut dianalisis menggunakan teori religiusitas yang terdiri dari tiga dimensi utama, yaitu akidah, syariah, dan akhlak. Berdasarkan beberapa data yang didapatkan, kondisi religiusitas narapidana vonis hukuman mati di lapas Permisan sangat baik, hal ini terlihat dari pelaksanaan tiga dimensi utama religiusitas itu sendiri. Pada sisi kedua, religiusitas narapidana dipengaruhi oleh faktor internal berupa kesadaran atas dosa masa lalu dan ketakutan akan kematian. Sedangkan motivasi eksternal didapatkan dari orang tua, anak dan istri.

scholarly journals Physician Participation in Executions, the Morality of Capital Punishment, and the Practical Implications of Their Relationship

2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 333-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Litton
Keyword(s):  
Capital Punishment ◽  
United States Supreme Court ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ethical Debate ◽  
Physician Participation ◽  
Lethal Injection ◽  
Death Row Inmates ◽  
Pain And Suffering ◽  
Practical Implications

Over the past several years, the most widely publicized issue in capital litigation has been the constitutional status of states’ lethal injection protocols. Death row inmates have not challenged the constitutionality of lethal injection itself, but rather execution protocols and their potential for maladministration. The inmates’ concern is due to the three-drug protocol used in the vast majority of capital jurisdictions: if the anesthetic, which is administered first, is ineffectively delivered, then the second and third drugs — the paralytic and heartbeat-ceasing agents — will cause torturous pain and suffering in violation of the Eight Amendment. Inmates have argued that the participation of anesthesiologists or other highly trained medical professionals is constitutionally required to minimize the risk of unnecessary suffering. This litigation, in conjunction with evidence that some executed inmates suffered torturous pain, has reinvigorated the ethical debate about physician participation in executions. Even though the United States Supreme Court has signaled that physician participation is not constitutionally required, lawmakers in death penalty states must consider the ethics of physician involvement.

scholarly journals Introduction

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark S. Micale ◽  
Philip Dwyer
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Violence ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Child Abuse ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
Electronic Media ◽  
Animal Abuse ◽  
The Past ◽  
Human World

In the closing months of 2011, Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker published The Better Angels of Our Nature: The Decline of Violence in History and Its Causes.1 Weighing in at over eight hundred closely printed pages, Pinker’s book advances a bold, revisionist thesis: despite the relentless deluge of violent, sensationalist stories in the pervasive electronic media of our day, Pinker proposes, violence in the human world, in nearly every form, has in fact declined dramatically. Over the past several thousand years, and particularly since the eighteenth century, homicides, criminal assaults, war casualties, domestic violence, child abuse, animal abuse, capital punishment, lynching, and rape have all been steadily diminishing in frequency.

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