Questioning Capital Punishment Law, Policy, and Practice Criminology and Justice Studies Series

The death penalty has inspired controversy for centuries. Raising questions regarding capital punishment rather than answering them, Questioning Capital Punishment offers the footing needed to allow for more informed consideration and analysis of these controversies. Acker edits judicial decisions that have addressed constitutional challenges to capital punishment and its administration in the United States and uses complementary materials to offer historical, empirical, and normative perspectives about death penalty policies and practices. This book is ideal for upper-level undergraduate and graduate classes in criminal justice.

PART I: The Death Penalty’s Justifications: Pro and Con 1. Retribution (Just Deserts) 2. Deterrence 3. Incapacitation, Cost, and Consideration for Victims 4. Capital Punishment for Murder: Sentencing Criteria and Procedures 5. Proportionality: Offenses and Offenders 6. The New Death-Penalty Laws in Application: Race Discrimination and Arbitrariness 7. Defense Attorneys and Capital Jurors PART III: Post-Conviction 8. Capital Errors: Procedural Issues and Actual Innocence 9. The Final Stages: Death Row, Clemency, Execution

James R. Acker is a Distinguished Teaching Professor in the School of Criminal Justice at the University at Albany. He received his JD at Duke University and his PhD in criminal justice at the University at Albany. He has edited several books and authored numerous scholarly articles that focus on legal and empirical aspects of capital punishment. In 2005, Acker helped establish the National Death Penalty Archive at the University at Albany, a repository that houses one of the largest and most significant collections of historical materials relating to the death penalty in the United States. His other academic interests include the integration of social science into law, legal doctrine relating to criminal procedure, criminal law, and juvenile justice, and issues pertaining to miscarriages of justice.