pt. I. The enduring legacy of capital punishment in the United States -- Introduction -- 1. Capital punishment in the early period : 1608-1929 -- Capital crimes and capital statutes in the early period -- Characteristics of executions in the early period -- Changes in the practice of the death penalty in the early period -- Methods of execution in the early period -- Location of the death penalty in the early period -- Chapter summary -- Discussion questions -- Student resources -- Endnotes -- 2. Capital punishment in the premodern period : 1930-1967 -- Capital crimes and capital statutes in the premodern period -- Characteristics of executions in the premodern period -- Methods of execution in the premodern period -- Location of the death penalty in the premodern period -- Chapter summary -- Discussion questions -- Student resources -- Endnotes -- 3. Capital punishment in the modern period : 1976-present -- Capital crimes and capital statutes in the modern period -- Characteristics of executions in the modern period -- Methods of execution in the modern period -- Location of the death penalty in the modern period -- Changes in the practice of the death penalty in the modern period -- The federal and military death penalty -- Chapter summary -- Discussion questions -- Student resources -- Endnotes --
pt. II. Legal history, constitutional requirements, and common justifications for capital punishment in the United States -- Introduction -- 4. A brief legal history of capital punishment in the United States -- Early constitutional challenges to the method of imposing death -- Constitutional theories about what the Eighth Amendment prohibits -- A definition of 'cruel and unusual' -- The death penalty's decline in popularity and challenges to its constitutionality, the prelude to McGautha v. California -- The death penalty is not procedurally flawed, the case of McGautha v. California -- The death penalty as currently administered is so procedurally flawed that it constitutes 'cruel and unusual punishment,' the case of Furman v. Georgia -- Chapter summary -- Discussion questions -- Student resources -- Endnotes -- 5. Constitutional requirements for capital punishment in the United States -- The response to Furman : mandatory and guided discretion capital statutes -- The execution of special groups, the retarded, the young, and the mentally ill -- The death penalty for the mentally retarded -- The death penalty for juveniles -- The death penalty for the mentally ill -- Chapter summary -- Discussion questions -- Student resources -- Endnotes -- 6. Common justifications for the death penalty -- Retribution : the moral argument for the death penalty -- Kantian retribution -- Berns' argument -- Van den Haag's argument -- Other retributivist views -- Some examples -- Cost : the financial argument for the death penalty -- Incapacitation : one of the public safety arguments for the death penalty -- General deterrence : the other public safety argument for the death penalty -- Sellin's research -- Ehrlich's strategy -- Other researchers -- Religious positions for and against the death penalty -- Chapter summary -- Discussion questions -- Student resources -- Endnotes --
pt. III. The administration of the death penalty : issues of race and human fallability -- Introduction -- 7. Race, the law, and punishment -- The peculiar institution -- The slave codes -- Criminal codes -- Race and legal institutions after the Civil War -- The Black codes -- Radical reconstruction -- Jim Crow laws -- Disenfranchisement -- Violence against Blacks -- Chapter summary -- Discussion questions -- Student resources -- Endnotes -- 8. Race and capital punishment -- Race and capital punishment : 1930-1967 -- The indictment and charging decision -- The conviction and sentencing decision -- The commutation decision -- Evidence of racially disparate treatment in the courts -- Race and capital punishment, 1976 to the present -- The indictment and charging decision -- The conviction and sentencing decision -- Post-Furman evidence of racial discrimination in capital sentencing before the courts, McCleskey v. Kemp -- Chapter summary -- Discussion questions -- Student resources -- Endnotes -- 9. Problems in administering the death penalty -- The possibly innocent -- The Carlos DeLuna case -- The Joseph O'Dell case -- The Gary Graham case -- The exonerated -- Gary Gauger -- Anthony Porter -- Frank Lee Smith -- Kirk Bloodsworth -- Rolando Cruz -- Ryan Matthews -- A 'broken system' -- Ineffective or incompetent defense counsel -- Prosecutor and law enforcement misconduct -- Jail house snitches and 'junk science' -- Chapter summary -- Discussion questions -- Student resources -- Endnotes --
pt. IV. What's to come of the death penalty
10. Capital punishment in America's future
Public support for the death penalty in the United States
The death penalty in other countries
Predictions about the future of the death penalty in America
What about life without the possibility of parole?
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