Capital Punishment
(see also Incarceration, Death Penalty Abolition, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Prison Reform & Restorative Justice)
The death penalty, long since abolished in most democratic countries as a violation of human rights that is ineffective in detering homicide, was suspended in 1972 by the US Supreme court as an arbitrarily administered form of cruel & unusual punishment. Following the redrafting of state laws it was reinstated by the Court as a legal form of punishment in 1976. Michigan was the first territory in the world to abolish capital punishment in 1846; today fourteen US states & the District of Colombia forbid it. In the remaining thirty-three more than 800 people had been put death since 1976; & in 2002 the Federal Government executed its first two prisoners since 1976. The cost to society of capital prosecutions is much greater than the cost of maintaining the same prisoners under life sentence without possibility of parole.
The Last Executioner. Jennifer Gonnerman, Village Voice (1/24/05). Unenviable life of Dow B. Hover at Sing Sing.
Death in Texas. Sister Helen Prejean, NY Review (1/13/05). The administration of capital punishment under governor G.W. Bush.
Howard Dean on Capital Punishment (6/03). Views of one-time presidential candidate & ex-governor of VT.
Dante & the Death Penalty. Matthew Pearl, Legal Affairs (1-2/03). How capital punishment fails its audience.
Prison Officials Want to Build New Death Row. Michelle Locke, Associated Press (5/1/02). Plans for an expanded & rehabilitated San Quentin.
Death
& Disparity. David Cole, Nation (6/15/01).
No Vengeance,
No Justice. Patricia Williams, Nation (6/14/01).
McVeigh: Done to Death. Bruce Shapiro, Nation (6/14/01).
"Moral" Execution. Bruce Shapiro, Nation (6/6/01).
McVeigh's Last Message. Bruce Shapiro, Nation (5/17/01).
Covenant with Death. Christopher Hitchens, Nation (4/26/01).
Death Trip: The American Way of Execution. Robert Sherrill, Nation (12/21/00).
Living & Dying with Dobie Williams. Sr. Helen Prejean, Touchstone (2-3/00).
On the Web: Specialized Sites
Criminal Justice Policy Foundation.
Death Penalty Information Center.
Death Row Facts. (Texas Dept. of Criminal Justice).
Justice for All. Pro-death penalty group. Maintains resource site at Pro-Death Penalty.com.
The Nation's Death Row Roll Call.
In the Library: Articles:
Aaron, Craig. "Death is different," In These Times (10/14/02):22-26.
Allen, John. "The switch," On Wisconsin (fall 01):38-43. On decline of electric chair method.
Amitay, Cheryl Aviva. "Justice or 'just us': the anomalous retention of the death penalty in the US," Maryland Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues 7 (1996).
Anon. "The case against the death penalty," Progressive (2/00).
__________. "Stop the killing machine," Progressive (8/01):8-10.
Bach, Amy. "Unforgiven," Nation (1/21/02):22-5. Wilbert Rideau, "most rehabilitated man in America."
Bailey, William C. "Disaggregation in deterrence & death penalty research: the case of murder in Chicago," Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 74,3 (1984):827-59.
__________ & R. Peterson. "Murder, capital punishment & deterrence," Journal of Social Issues 50 (sum 94).
__________. "Deterrence, brutalization & the death penalty: another examination of Oklahoma's return to capital punishment," Criminology (1998):711-33.
Baldus, D. & J. Cole. "A comparison of the work of Thorstein Sellin & Isaac Ehrlich on the deterrent effect of capital punishment," Yale Law Journal 85 (1975): 170-86.
Bedau, Hugo A. "Survey of the debate on capital punishment in Canada, England & the US, 1948-1958," Prison Journal (10/58).
__________. "The death penalty as deterrent: argument & evidence," Ethics 80 (1970):205-17.
__________. "Deterrence & the death penalty: a reconsideration," Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology & Police Science 61 (1970).
__________. "Retribution & the theory of punishment," Journal of Philosophy 75 (1978):601-20.
__________. "Capital punishment" in T. Regan (ed.) Matters of Life & Death (NY: Random House, 1980).
__________. "Thinking of death as a cruel & unusual punishment," UC Davis Law Review 18 (1985):873-926.
__________ & Michael Radelet. "Miscarriages of justice in potentially capital cases," Stanford Law Review 40,1 (11/87):21-179.
Bentele, Ursula. "The death penalty in Georgia: still arbitrary," Washington University Law Review 62 (1985):573-646.
Berlow, Alan. "The Texas clemency memos," Atlantic (7-8/03). Exposes close collaboration of Texas governor George W. Bush & his legal counsel Alberto R. Gonzales in process of ignoring clemency petitions for death row prisoners -- only one of which was acceded to during Bush's six years in office.
Blumee, John & David Bruck. "Sentencing the mentally retarded to death: an Eighth Amendment analysis," Arkansas Law Review 41 (1988):725-64.
Bowers, William. "The illusion of deterrence in Isaac Ehrlich's research on capital punishment," Yale Law Journal 85 (12/75):187-208.
__________. "Deterrence or brutalization: what is the effect of executions?" Crime & Delinquency 26 (1980):453-84.
__________ & Glenn Pierce. "Racial discrimination & criminal homicide under post-Furman capital statutes," Crime & Delinquency 26 (1980):563-635.
Bright, Stephen B. "The killing machine," Nation (10/9/00):17-18.
Browning, Michael. "After 50 years, questions still linger about Rosenbergs' execution," Santa Cruz Sentinel (6/19/03):A1
Cameron, Diane. "Murderer, or just a man who made Mom happy?" Christian Science Monitor (9/18/03):9.
Clarke, J.W. "Without fear or shame: lynching, capital punishment & the subculture of violence in the American South," British Journal of Political Science 28,2 (4/98):269-89.
Cockburn, Alexander. "Hate vs. death," Nation (3/12/01):9.
Cohen, Sharon. "17 years of anger," Santa Cruz Sentinel (11/2/03):A2
Exonerated death row inmate still simmers with anger.
Cole, David. "Courting capital punishment," Nation (2/26/96):20-22.
Conway, David A. "Capital punishment: some considerations in dialogue form," Philosophy & Public Affairs 3,4 (1974):431-43.
Corn, David. "Death house troubador. Steve Earle rocks ‘n rants against capital punishment," Nation 8/25/97):34-.
Curran, William J. & Ward Casscells. "The ethics of medical participation in capital punishment by intravenous drug injection," New England Journal of Medicine 302,4 (1/24/80):226-30.
Da, Liu Fong & John Creger. "Execution day in Zhengzhou," American Spectator (12/86).
Davis, David Brion. "The movement to abolish capital punishment in America, 1787-1861", in his From Homicide to Slavery: Studies in American Culture (NY: NYU, 1986), pp. 17-40.
Dionne, E.J. "Capital punishment gaining favor as public seeks retribution," Corrections Today 52,5 (8/90):178-82.
__________. "Karla Tucker's legacy: death penalty debate takes a turn," Commonweal 125,4 (2/27/98):9-11.
Ehrenreich, Barbara. "Dirty laundry: Benetton's 'We, on Death Row' campaign," Aperture 160 (sum 00):10-25.
Ehrlich, Isaac. "The deterrent effect of capital punishment: a question of life & death," American Economic Review 65 (1975):397-417. Complex but badly flawed argument influential with some justices in Supreme Court's 1976 decision to reinstate death penalty in Gregg vs. Georgia.
Ehrmann, Sara R. "For whom the chair waits," Federal Probation 26 (1962):14-25.
Ellsworth, Phoebe C. & Lee Ross. "Public opinion & capital punishment: a close examination of the views of abolitionists & retentionists," Crime & Delinquency 29 (1983).
Espy, M. Watt Jr. "Capital punishment & deterrence: what the statistics cannot show," Crime & Delinquency 26 (1980):537-44.
Feldman, Jessica. "Comment: a death row incarceration calculus. When prolonged death row imprisonment becomes unconstitutional," Santa Clara Law Review 40 (1999):204-5.
Finckenauer, James O. "Public support for the death penalty: retribution as just deserts or retribution as revenge?" Justice Quarterly 5 (1988).
Fox, James Alan & Michael L. Radelet. "Persistent flaws in econometric studies of the deterrent effect of the death penalty," Loyola Los Angeles Law Review 23 (1989).
Fox, Thomas C. "No way to right death penalty wrong," National Catholic Reporter (3/26/99).
Frost, Brian. "Capital punishment & deterrence: conflicting evidence?" Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 74 (1983).
Garey, Margot. "The cost of taking a life: dollars & sense of the death penalty," UC Davis Law Review 18 (1985):1271-74.
Geimer, William S. & Jonathan Amsterdam. "Why juries vote life or death: operative factors in ten Florida death penalty cases," American Journal of Criminal Law 15 (1987-88):1-54.
Gilmore, Brian. "Spotlight on the death penalty," Progressive (8/03): Review essay on play The Exonerated.
Greene, Norman L. "Sparing Cain: executive clemency in capital cases," Capital University Law Review 28 (2000).
Gross, Samuel & Robert Mauro. "Patterns of death: an analysis of disparities in capital sentencing & homicide victimization," Stanford Law Review 37 (19??):27-153.
Haines, Edson L. & others. "Symposium: The Abolition of Capital Punishment," Canadian Bar Review (1954).
Haney, Craig. "Riding the punishment wave: on the origins of our devolving standards of decency," Hastings Women's Law Journal 9 (win 98).
Herbert, Bob. "Near death experince," San Jose Mercury (8/24/99).
Holt, Pat M. “Death penalty: how foolproof is our justice?,” Christian Science Monitor (3/6/03):11.
Hood, Roger. "The death penalty: the USA in world perspective," Journal of Transnational Law & Policy 6 (1997).
Hussain, Abdul H. & Seymour Tozman. "Psychiatry on death row," Journal of Clinical Psychiatry (3/78):183-87.
Janicik, Doug. "Allowing victims' families to view executions: the Eighth Amendment & society's justifications for punishment," Ohio State Law Journal 61 (2000):967-69.
Jayawardene, C.H.S. "The death penalty in Ceylon," Ceylon Journal of Historical & Social Studies 3,2 (7-12/60):166-86.
Jones, Brandon Aston. "The disease of the surprise visitor," New Internationalists (9/94):35-36. Brandon Jones, a death row inmate describes how prison life recycles the violence it seeks to prevent.
Jordan, Sandra D. "Death for drug related killings: revival of the Federal death penalty," Chicago-Kent Law Review 67 (1991).
Journal of Social Issues 50,2 (sum 94). Special issue on death penalty.
Kannar, George. "Federalizing death," Buffalo Law Review 44 (spr 96).
Kelley, Robin D.G. "Dead labor," MR (1/94):47-53.
Klein, Stephen J. & John E. Rolph. "Relationship of offender & victim race to death penalty sentences in California," Jurimetrics 32 (1991).
Lane, Roger. "Capital punishment," in Ronald Gottesmann (ed.) Violence in America: An Encyclopedia (NY: Scribner's, 1999).
Lempert, Richard O. "Desert & deterrence: an assessment of the moral bases of the case for capital punishment," Michigan Law Review 79 (1981):1177-1231.
__________. "The effect of executions on homicides: a new look in an old light," Crime & Delinquency 29 (1983):88-115.
Levi, Nicholas. "Veil of secrecy: public executions, limitations on reporting capital punishment, & the content-based nature of private execution laws," Federal Communications Law Journal 55,1 (12/02):31-52.
Lindorff, Dave. "False witness," In These Times (4/1/02):3.
____________. "Finally free: one death row inmate's uphill battle," In These Times (9/15/03):4.
Linebaugh, Peter. "The farce of the death penalty," Nation (8/14/21):165-168.
Mantel, Hilary. "The right to life," NY Review (5/12/05):4-8. Review essay on Prejean, The Death of Innocents, expressing vigorously a European view of America's obsession with retributive punishment, & the shameful record of Texas governor George W. Bush in this regard.
Martin, Earl F. "Tessie Hutchinson & the American system of capital punishment," Maryland Law Review 59 (2000):585-88.
Marx, Karl. "On capital punishment," MR 36,1(5/84):44-45.
McBride, James. "Capital punishment as the unconstitutional establishment
of religion: a Girardian reading of the death penalty," Journal of
Church & State 37,2 (spr 1995):263-88.
McCarthy, Colman. "Cons teach cons peace," Progressive (10/97).
Mooney, Christopher Z. & Mei-Hsien Lee. "Morality policy reinvention: state death penalties," Annals of the American Academy of Political & Social Science 566 (1999).
Muwakkil, Salim. "Cycle of retribution," In These Times (6/25/01):3.
Nakell, Barry. "The cost of the death penalty," Criminal Law Bulletin 14 (1978):68-80.
Nathanson, Stephen. "Does it matter if the death penalty is arbitrarily administered?" Philosophy & Public Affairs 14 (1985):149-64.
O'Kasick, Jeremy. "Free at last," In These Times (9/15/03):28-29. Review of Erick Jensen & Jessica Blank's The Exonerated.
Oldenquist, Andrew. "The case for revenge," The Public Interest 82 (win 86):72-80.
Palmer, Elizabeth A. "The death penalty: shifting perspectives," CQ Weekly (6/3/00):1324-.
Passell, Peter. "The deterrent effect of capital punishment: a statistical test," Stanford Law Review 28 (1975):61-80.
__________ & John Taylor. "The deterrent effect of capital punishment: another view," American Economic Review 67 (1977).
Paulson, Amanda & Abraham McLaughlin. "Despite reprieves, 3500 still on death row in the US," Christian Science Monitor (9/4/03):4.
Pennington, Judy. "Sr. Helen Prejean (interview)," Progressive (1/96):32-35.
Pollitt, Katha. "The death penalty in theory & practice," Nation (3/6/00):10.
Prejean, Helen. "Death in Texas," NY Review (1/13/05). Focus on Karla Faye Tucker case in 1998, & cavalier dismissal of clemency petitions by governor George W. Bush & his legal counsel, Alberto R. Gonzales.
Prinzo, Kristi Tumminello. "The US: 'capital' of the world, an analysis of why the US practices capital punishment while the international trend is toward its abolition," Brooklyn Journal of International Law 24 (1999):855-.
Radelet, Michael L. & Barbara Zsembik. "Executive clemency in post-Furman capital cases," University of Richmond Law Review 27 (win 93).
__________ & R. Akers. "Deterrence & the death penalty: the views of the experts," Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 87 (fall 96).
Radin, Margaret. "The jurisprudence of death: evolving standards for the cruel & unusual punishment clause," U. Pennsylvania Law Review 126 (1978):989-1064.
__________. "Cruel punishment & respect for persons: super due process for death," Southern California Law Review 53 (1980):1143-85.
__________. "Proportionality, subjectivity, & tragedy," UC Davis Law Review 18 (1985):1165-77.
Reiman, Jeffrey. "Justice, civilization & the death penalty," Philosophy & Public Affairs 14 (1985):115-48.
Rogers, Alan. "Chinese & the campaign to abolish capital punishment in Massachusetts, 1870-1914," Journal of American Ethnic History 18,2 (win 99):37-72.
Sadataka, Kogi. "Etude criminologique et psycho-pathologique de condamnés a mort ou aux travaux forcés à perpetuité au Japon," Annales Medico-Psychologiques 117,2, pt. 3 (10/59).
Schreiber, Ariane M. "States that kill: discretion & the death penalty -- a worldwide perspective," Cornell International Law Journal 29 (1996).
Sellin, Thorstein (ed.) "Symposium on murder & the death penalty," Annals of the American Academy of Political & Social Science 284 (11/52).
Shainin, Jonathan. "Death on the installment plan," Nation (7/23/01):30-32.
Shapiro, Bruce. "Sleeping lawyer syndrome," Nation (4/7/97):27-29.
__________. "A talk with Gov. George Ryan," Nation (1/8/01):17.
__________. "McVeigh's last message," Nation (6/4/01):5-6.
__________. "McVeigh: done to death," Nation (7/2/01):4-5.
__________. "Dead reckoning," Nation (8/6/01):14-18. On world-wide effort to end capital punishment in US.
Sherrill, Robert. "Death trip: the American way of execution," Nation (1/8/01):13-34.
Silverstein, Ken. "By reason of insanity," Mother Jones (9-10/01):26-31. Frequent executions of the mentally ill.
Soskis, Benjamin. "Alive & kicking," New Republic (4/17/00):26-.
Stern, Lawrence. "Deserved punishment, deserved harm, deserved blame," Philosophy 45 (1970):317-27.
Templeton, Erica. "Killing kids: the impact of Dominguez v. Nevada on the juvenile death penalty as a violation of international law," Boston College Law Review 41 (9/00):1214-15.
Turow, Scott. "To kill or not to kill. Coming to terms with capital punishment," New Yorker (1/6/03). Thoughtful recounting of process by which he became an opponent.
van den Haag, Ernest. "In defense of the death penalty: a legal-practical-moral analysis," Criminal Law Bulletin 14 (1978):51-68.
__________. "Refuting Reiman & Nathanson," Philosophy & Public Affairs 14 (1985):165-76.
Vandiver, M. "The quality of mercy: race & clemency in Florida death penalty cases, 1924-1966," University of Richmond Law Review 27 (1993).
Weinberg, Steve. "The system doesn’t work. Just ask Ellen Reasonover," In These Times (10/30/01):18-25. Story of an innocent prisoner released after 16 yrs. on death row.
Weisberg, Robert. "Deregulating death," in P. Kurland (ed.) The 1983 Supreme Court Review (Chicago: U. Chicago, 1984).
Westerman, Chuck. “Capital punishment reconsidered,” The Other Side (1984).
Williams, Patricia J. "No vengeance, no justice," Nation (7/2/01):9.
Zeisel, Hans. "The deterrent effect of the death penalty: facts v. faith," in P. Kurland (ed.) The 1976 Supreme Court Review (Chicago: U. Chicago, 1977).
__________. "Race bias in the administration of the death penalty: the Florida experience," Harvard Law Review 95 (1981).
In the Library: Non-Fiction Books
Abu-Jamal, Mumia. Live from Death Row (Reading MA: Addison-Wesley, 1995). Essays exposing the conditions of life on death row, written for broadcast over NPR.
Amnesty International. USA: The Death Penalty (Lonon, 1987).
__________. When the State Kills... The Death Penalty: A Human Rights Issue (NY, 1989).
__________. Killing with Prejudice: Race & the Death Penalty in the U.S.A. (NY, 1999).
__________. Racism & the Administration of Justice (NY, 2001).
Arriens, Jan (ed.) Welcome to Hell: Letters & Writings from Death
Row (Boston: Northeastern, 1997).
Baird, Robert M. & Stuart E. Rosenbaum (eds.) Punishment & the Death Penalty (Buffalo: Prometeus, 1995). Retentionist arguments.
Baldus, David C.; George Woodworth & Charles A. Pulaski Jr. Equal Justice & the Death Penalty: A Legal & Empirical Analysis (Boston: Northeastern U., 1990).
Banner, Stuart. The Death Penalty: An American History (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard, 2002)
Basave Fernández del Valle, Agustín. Meditación sobre
la pena de muerte (México, 19??).
Bedau, Hugo Adam (ed.) The Death Penalty in America [1964, 1976, 1982] (NY: Oxford, 1997).
Bentley, William G. My Son's Execution (London: W.H. Allen, 1957).
Berger, Raoul. Death Penalties: The Supreme Court's Obstacle Course (Cambridge MA: Harvard, 1982).
Berns, Walter. For Capital Punishment: Crime & the Morality of the Death Penalty (NY: Basic, 1979).
Bessler, John D. Death in the Dark: Midnight Executions in America (Boston, 1997).
__________. Kiss of Death: America's Love Affair with the Death Penalty (Boston: Northeastern U., 2003).
Bishop, George V. Executions: The Legal Ways of Death (LA: Sherbourne, 1965).
Black, Charles L. Jr. Capital Punishment: The Inevitability of Caprice & Mistake [1974] (NY: Norton, 1981).
Block, Eugene B. When Men Play God (San Francisco: Cragmont, 1983).
Blom-Cooper, Louis (ed.) The Hanging Question (London: Duckworth, 1969).
Blumstein, Alfred & others. (Washington: National Academy of Sciences, 1978).
Bohm, R.M. (ed.) The Death Penalty in America: Current Research (Cincinnati: Anderson, 1991).
Bok, Curtis. Star Wormwood (NY: Knopf, 1959).
Bowers, William. Executions in America (Lexington MA: Lexington, 1974).
__________. Legal Homicide: Death as Punishment in America, 1864-1982 (Boston: Northeastern U., 1984).
Bowling, Benjamin & Coretta Phillips. Racism, Crime & Justice (NY: Longman, 2002).
Braly, Malcom. False Starts: A Memoir of San Quentin & Other Prisons (NY: Penguin, 1976).
Brown, Edmund G. "Pat" with Dick Adler. Public Justice & Private Mercy: A Governor's Education on Death Row (NY: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1988).
Buchanan, William J. Execution Eve (Far Hills NJ: New Horizon, 1993).
Butterfield, Fox. All God's Children: The Boskey Family & the American Tradition of Violence (NY: Knopf, 1995).
Cabana, Donald A. Death at Midnight: The Confession of an Executioner (Boston: Northeastern, 1996).
Carrington, Frank. Neither Cruel nor Unusual (New Rochelle NY: Arlington, 1978).
Carter, Dan. Scottsboro: A Tragedy of the American South [1969] rev. ed.; Baton Rouge: Lousiana State U., 1991).
Chessman, Caryl. Cell 2455, Death Row (NY:Prentice-Hall, 1954).
Christianson, Scott. Condemned: Inside the Sing Sing Death House (NY: NYU, 1999).
Cokeer, J.B. & J.P. Martin. Licensed to Live (Oxford: Blackwell, 1985).
Conley, Ronald W.; Ruth Luckasson & George N. Bouthilet. The Criminal Justice System & Mental Retardation (Baltimore MD: Paul H. Brookes, 1992).
Conrad, John & Ernest van den Haag. The Death Penalty: A Debate (NY: Plenum, 1983).
Corns, Cathryn & John Hughes-Wilson. Blindfold & Alone: British Military Executions in the Great War (London: Cassell, 2002).
Curriden, Mark & Leroy Phillips Jr. Contempt of Court: The Turn-of-the-Century Lynching that Launched Hundred Years of Federalism (NY, 2001).
Davies, Nick. White Lies: Rape, Murder & Justice Texas Style (NY: Pantheon, 1991). Close examination of Clarence Brantley case.
Dow, David R. & Mark Dow (eds.) Machinery of Death. The Reality of America's Death Penalty Regime (NY: Routledge, 2002).
Doyal, Lesley & Imogen Pennell. The Political Economy of Health (Boston: South End, 198?).
Duff, Charles. A Handbook on Hanging [1929] (NY: NY Review, 2002).
Dwyer, Jim; Barry Scheck & Peter Neufeld. Actual Innocence: Five Days to Execution & Other Dispatches from the Wrongfully Convicted (NY: Doubleday, 2000).
Early, Pete. Circumstantial Evidence: Death, Life & Justice in a Southern Town (NY: Bantam, 1995). Case of Walter McMillan in Alabama, freed after six years on death row.
Ehrmann, Herbert B. The Case that Will Not Die: Commonwealth vs. Sacco & Vanzetti (Boston: Little Brown, 1969).
__________. The Untried Case: The Sacco-Vanzetti Case & the Morelli Gang (NY: Vanguard, 19??).
Eshelman, Byron. Death Row Chaplain (Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1962).
Essig, Mark. Edison & the Electric Chair: A Story of Light & Death (NY: Walker, 2003).
Foley, Michael A. Arbitrary & Capricious: The Supreme Court, the Constitution & the Death Penalty (Westport CT: Praeger, 2003).
Friedman, Lawrence M. Crime & Punishment in American History (NY: Basic Books, 1993).
Frisbie, Thomas & R. Garrett. Victims of Justice: The True Story of Two Innocent Condemned to Die & a Prosecution Out of Control (NY: Avon, 1998)
Gardiner, Gerald. Capital Punishment as a Deterrent, & the Alternative (London: Gollancz, 1965).
Garvey, Stephen P. (ed.) Beyond Repair? America's Death Penalty (Durham NC: Duke, 2002).
Gatrell, A.C. The Hanging Tree: Execution & the English People, 1770-1868 (NY: Oxford, 1994).
Gaylin, Willard. Partial Justice: A Study of Bias in Sentencing (NY: Vintage, 1975).
__________. The Killing of Bonnie Garland (NY: Penguin, 1983).
Gilmore, Mikal. Shot in the Heart (NY: Doubleday, 1993). Memoir exposing family background of Gary Gilmore, executed in Utah in 1977.
Glover, Jonathan. Causing Deaths & Saving Lives (NY: Penguin, 1977).
Gollancz, Victor. Capital Punishment: The Heart of the Matter (London: Gollancz, 1955).
Goodman, James. Stories of Scottsboro (NY: Pantheon, 1994).
Gorecki, Jan. Capital Punishment: Criminal Law & Social Evolution (NY: Columbia, 1983).
Gray, Mike. Death Game: Capital Punishment & the Luck of the Draw (Monroe ME: Common Courage, 2003).
Gross, Samuel R. & Robert Mauro. Death & Discrimination: Racial Disparities in Capital Sentencing (Boston: Northeastern U., 1989).
Guest, David. Sentenced to Death: The American Novel & Capital Punishment (Jackson: U. of Mississippi, 1997).
Haines, Herbert. Against Capital Punishment. The Anti-Death Penalty Movement in America (Oxford, 1996).
Hamm, Theodore. Rebel & a Cause: Caryl Chessman & the Politics of the Death Penalty in Postwar California, 1948-1974 (Berkeley, 2001).
Harries, Keith & Derral Cheatwood. The Geography of Executions: The Capital Punishment Quagmire in America (Lanham MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1997).
Hodgkinson, Peter & Andrew Rutherford (eds.) Capital Punishment: Global Issues & Prospects (Oxford: Waterside, 1996).
Hood, Roger. The Death Penalty: A Worldwide Perspective (NY: Oxford, 1996).
Hook, Donald D. & Lothar Kah. Death in the Balance: The Debate over Capital Punishment (Lexington MA: Lexington, 1989).
Isenberg, Irwin (ed.) The Death Penalty (NY: H.W. Wilson, 1977).
Jackson, Rev. Jesse L., Sr.; Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. & Bruce Shapiro. Legal Lynching: The Death Penalty & America’s Future (NY: New Press, 2001).
Jacoby, Susan. Wild Justice: The Evolution of Revenge (NY: Harper & Row, 1983).
Johnson, Robert. Condemned to Die: Life under Sentence of Death (NY: Elsevier, 1981).
__________. Death Work: A Study of the Modern Execution Process (Pacific Grove CA: Brooks/Cole, 1990).
Jones, Barry (ed.) The Penalty is Death: Capital Punishment in the 20th C., Retentionist & Abolitionist Arguments with Special Reference to Australia (Melbourne: Sun, 1968).
Joyce, James Avery. Capital Punishment: A World View (NY: Grove, 1961).
Junkin, Tim. Bloodsworth: The True Story of the First Death Row Inmate Exonerated by DNA (Chapel Hill NC: Algonquin, 2004).
Kennedy, Ludovic. The Airman & the Carpenter: The Lindbergh Kidnapping & the Framing of Richard Hauptmann (NY: Viking, 1985).
Kershaw, Alistaire. History of the Guillotine (London: John Calder, 1958).
King, Rachel. Capital Consequences: Families of the Condemned Tell their Stories (New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers, 2005).
Koestler, Arthur. Reflections on Hanging (London: Gollancz, 1956).
Kurtis, Bill. The Death Penalty on Trial: Crisis in American Justice (NY: Public Affairs, 2004).
Kytle, Calvin & Daniel H. Pollitt. Unjust in the Much: The Death Penalty in North Carolina (Chapel Hill: Chestnut Tree, 1999).
Lenotre, G. The Guillotine & Its Servants (London: Hutchinson, 1929).
Lezin, Katya. Finding Life on Death Row. Profiles of Six Inmates (Boston, 2000).
Liebman, James S.; Jeffrey Fagan & Valerie West. A Broken System: Error Rates in Capital Cases, 1973-1995 (Washington, 2000).
Light, Ken & Suzanne Donovan. Texas Death Row (Oxford MS, 1997).
Lin, Ann Chih & Raphael Goldman (ed. & author). Capital Punishment (Washington: Congressional Quarterly, 2002). Invaluable, balanced, up-to-date compendium of information, analysis & resources from both retentionist & abolitionist points of view.
Lindorff, Dave. Killing Time: An Investigation into the Death Row Case of Mumia Abu Jamal (Monroe ME: Common Courage, 2003).
Mackey, Phelip English (ed.) Voices Against Death: American Opposition to Capital Punishment, 1787-1975 (NY: Burt Franklin, 1976).
__________. Hanging in the Balance: The Anti-Capital Punishment Movement in New York State, 1776-1861 (NY: Garland, 1982).
Masters, Jarvis Jay. Finding Freedom. Writings from Death Row (NY?, 1997).
Masur, Louis P. Rites of Execution: Capital Punishment & the Transformation of American Culture, 1776-1865 (NY: Oxford, 1991).
McFeely, William S. Proximity to Death (NY: Norton, 1999). Historian's reflections on involvement in a captial case.
Mears, Michael. The Death Penalty in Georgia: A Modern History, 1970-2000 (Atlanta: Georgia Indigent Defense, 1999).
Megivern, James J. The Death Penalty: An Historical & Theological Survey (Mahwah NJ: Paulist, 1997).
Mello, Michael. Dead Wrong. A Death Row Lawyer Speaks Out Against Capital Punishment (Madison, 1999).
__________. Deathwork. Defending the Condemned (Minneapolis: U. Minnesota, 2002).
Meltsner, Michael. Cruel & Unusual: The Supreme Court & Capital Punishment (NY: Random House, 1974).
Miller, Kent S. & Michael L. Radelet. Executing the Mentally Ill: The Criminal Justice System & the Case of Alvin Ford (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1993).
Moran, Richard. Executioner's Current: Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse & the Invention of the Electric Chair (NY: Knopf, 2002).
Nakell, Barry & Kenneth A. Hardy. The Arbitrariness of the Death Penalty (Philadelphia: Temple U., 1987).
Navarro, Vicente (ed.) Imperialism, Health & Medicine (Farmingdale, NY: Baywood,1998).
New York State Defenders Association. Capital Losses: The Price of the Death Penalty in New York State (Albany, 1982).
Oshinsky, David. "Worse than Slavery": Parchman Farm & the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice (NY: Free Press, 1996).
Owens, Virginia Stem & David Clinton Owens. Living Next Door to the Death House (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003).
Paget, R.T.; Sydney Silverman & Christopher Hollis. Hanged -- & Innocent? (London: Gollancz, 1953).
Palmer, Louis J. The Death Penalty: An American Citizen's guide to Understanding Federal & State Laws (Jefferson NC: McFarland, 1998).
Pierrepoint, Albert. Executioner: Pierrepoint (Sevenoaks, Kent: Hodder & Stoughton, 1974).
Playfair, Giles & Derrick Sington. The Offenders: The Case against Legal Vengeance (NY: Simon & Schuster, 1957).
Prejean, Helen. Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States (NY: Random House, 1993).
__________. The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions (NY: Random House, 2004).
Radelet, Michael L.; Hugo Adam Bedau & Constance E. Putnam. In Spite of Innocence: Erroneous Convictions in Capital Cases (Boston: Northeastern U., 1992).
Sarat, Austin (ed.) The Killing State: Capital Punishment in Law, Politics & Culture (NY: Oxford, 1999).
__________. When the State Kills: Capital Punishment & the American Condition (Princeton: Princeton, 2001).
Schabas, William A. International Sourcebook on Capital Punishment (Boston: Northeastern U., 1997).
Schwed, Roger. Abolition & Capital Punishment: The US' Judicial, Political & Moral Barometer (NY: AMS, 1983).
Scott, G.R. History of Capital Punishment (NY, 1951).
Sellin, Thorstein. The Death Penalty (Philadelphia: American Law Institute, 1959).
__________. Capital Punishment (NY: Harper & Row, 1967).
__________. The Penalty of Death (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1980). Debunks executions as deterrent.
Spierenburg, Pieter. The Spectacle of Suffering: Executions & the Evolution of Repression (Cambridge: Cambridge U., 2984).
Stassen, Glen H. Capital Punishment: A Reader (?, 1999).
Steelwater, Eliza. The Hangman's Knot: Lynching, Legal Execution & America's Struggle with the Death Penalty (Boulder: Westview, 2003).
Steffen, Lloyd. Executing Justice. The Moral Meaning of the Death Penalty (Cleveland, 1999).
Streib, Victor. Death Penalty for Juveniles (Bloomington: Indiana U., 1987).
Turow, Scott. Ultimate Punishment: A Lawyer's Reflections on Dealing with the Death Penalty (NY: Picador, 2003).
Templewood, Viscount. The Shadow of the Gallows (London: Gollancz, 1951).
Tucker, John C. May God Have Mercy. A True Story of Crime & Punishment (NY: Dell, 1998).
Turow, Scott. Ultimate Punishment: A Lawyer's Reflections on Dealing with the Death Penalty (NY: Picador, 2003). Lessons from participation in review process that led to the Illinois moratorium.
Von Drehle, David. Among the Lowest of the Dead (NY: Random House, 1995). Capital punishment in Florida since 1993.
Waitzkin, Howard. The Second Sickness: Contradictions of Capitalist Health Care (New York: Free Press, 1983).
Walker, Samuel: Cassia Spohn & Myriam DeLone. The Color of Justice: Race, Ethnicity & Crime in America (2nd ed. Belmont CA: Wadsworth, 2000).
Weeks, R.P. (ed.) Commonweath vs. Sacco & Vanzetti (NY: Prentice-Hall, 1958).
Winslow, George. Capital Crimes (NY, 2000).
Zimring, Franklin E. & Gordon Hawkins. Capital Punishment & the American Agenda (NY: Cambridge, 1986.
__________. The Contradictions of American Capital Punishment (NY: Oxford, 2003).
In the Library: Fiction
Conlon, Evelyn. Skin of Dreams (London: Brandon, 2003).
Fontana, Hugo. Veneno (Madrid: Lengua de Trapo, 2000).
French, Albert. Billy (NY: Viking, 1993). Race & death penalty for a 10-yr. old in 1930s Mississippi.
Gaines, Ernest J. A Lesson Before Dying (NY: Vintage, 1993). Race, identity & capital punishment in 1940s Louisiana.
Habersaat, Edith. Les cheveaux du crepuscule: roman (Paris: L'Harmattan, 1999).
Halperin, James L. The Truth Machine (NY: Ballantine, 1996).
Margolin, Philip. The Burning Man (NY: Doubleday, 1996).
McCrumb, Sharon. The Ballad of Frankie Silver (NY: Dutton, 1998).
Turow, Scott. Reversible Errors (NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2002).
Ward, Amanda Eyre. Sleep Toward Heaven: A Novel (San Francisco: MacAdam/Cage, 2003).
Wright, Richard. Native Son [1940] (NY: HarperPerennial, 1993).
In the Library: Poetry
In the Library: Drama
Jensen, Erick & Jessica Blank. The Exonerated (NY: Faber & Faber, 2004). A play about death row inmates.
Robbins, Tim. Dead Man Walking: The Shooting Script (NY, 1997).
In the Library: Photography
Black, Jacquelyn. Last Meal (Monroe ME: Common Courage, 2003).
"Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer" [1994], dir. Nick Broomfield, 87m. Media exploitation, police corruption & ineffectual counsel.
"Aileen: Life & Death of a Serial Killer" [2003], dir. Nick Broomfield & Joan Churchill, 89m. Second documentary on highway prostitute who killed seven men & was executed in 2002.
"The Back of the World (La espalda del mundo)" [2000], dir. Javier Corcuera, 89m. Includes
segment on Mississippi death row inmates & their families.
"Capote" [2005], dir. Bennett Miller, 98m. In video stores. Story of Truman Capote's research & writing of In Cold Blood, about crime & punishment of two serial killers in 1950s Kansas.
"Cell 2455 Death Row" [1955], dir. Fred F. Sears, 77m. In video stores. Based on memoir of executed "Lover's Lane Bandit," Caryl Chessman.
"Dead Man Walking [1996], dir. Tim Robbins, 122m. In video stores. Searing examination of both sides of death-penalty debate, based on Sr. Helen Prejean's memoir.
"Mr. Death: The Rise & Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr." [1999], dir. Errol Morris, 91m. In video stores. Story of leading US authority on execution devices, later an expert Holocaust denier.
"Monster" [2003], dir. Patty Jenkins, 109m. In video stores. Powerful dramatization of Aileen Wuornos case.
"Monster's Ball" [2001], dir. Marc Forster, 111m. In video stores. Racist prison guard/executioner falls in love with African-American widow of last man he has put to death.
"My Cousin Vinny" [1992], dir. Jonathan Lynn, 120m. In video stores. Light-hearted portrayal of a capital trial in Alabama.
"The Thin Blue Line" [1988], dir. Errol Morris. Said to have saved life of wrongly convicted Texas death row inmate Randall Dale Adams.
"The Widow of St.-Pierre (La veuve de St.-Pierre" [2000], dir. Patrice Leconte, 112m. In video stores. Murder, execution & redemption by love in mid-19th c. French North Atlantic.
"We are All Murderers (Nous sommes tous des assassins" [1952], dir. André Cayatte, 113m. Anti- death penalty drama of World War II resistance fighter, who continues killing in peacetime & is condemned to death.