Death Penalty Cases: Leading U.S. Supreme Court Cases on Capital Punishment, Edition 3

Barry Latzer

Oct 2010 · Elsevier

About this ebook

Death Penalty Cases presents significant verbatim excerpts of death-penalty decisions from the United States Supreme Court. The first chapter introduces the topics discussed throughout the book. It also includes a detailed history of the death penalty in the United States. After this introduction, the remaining eighteen chapters are divided into five parts: Foundational Cases, Death-Eligible Crimes and Persons, The Death Penalty Trial, Post-Conviction Review, and Execution Issues.

The first part, consisting of five chapters, talks about the mandatory death penalty, mitigating evidence and racial bias. The next part covers death-eligible crimes, such as rape and other crimes that do not involve homicide and murder. The middle part presents the trial process, from choosing the appropriate decision-makers through the sentencing decision. Followed by this is a chapter focusing on the aftermath of conviction, such as claims of innocence. The book concludes by exploring issues related to execution, such as not executing insane convicts. Finally, execution methods are presented.

• Provides the most recent case material--no need to supplement
• Topical organization of cases provides a more logical organization for structuring a course
• Co-authors with different perspectives on the death penalty assures complete impartiality of the material
• Provides the necessary historical background, a clear explanation of the current capital case process, and an impartial description of the controversies surrounding the death penalty
• Provides the latest statistics relevant to discussions on the death penalty
• Clearly explains the different ways in which the states process death penalty cases, with excerpts of the most relevant statutes

About the author

BARRY LATZER is Professor of Government at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a member of the Ph.D. and M.A. faculties in Criminal Justice at the Graduate School and University Center. He received a law degree (J.D.) from Fordham University (1985) and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (1977). Professor Latzer is also known for his work on state constitutional law, which is the subject of two of his books, State Constitutional Criminal Law (Clark, Boardman, Callaghan, 1995), and State Constitutions and Criminal Justice (Greenwood, 1991). He has published over two dozen scholarly articles and writes a continuing series of articles for the Criminal Law Bulletin, entitled "State Constitutional Developments."