Capital Punishment

Catalog description

This course examines the specific legal issues inherent in capital punishment within the general area of criminal law and procedure. Included will be detailed coverage of both substantive and procedural law of capital punishment, as well as the roles of lawyers, judges, and juries within this legal system. Law and legal analysis in death penalty statutes and cases are the major focuses of this course, with attention also given to empirical analyses of the practice and philosophical examinations as to its wisdom. We will consider the impact of racism, poverty, and ineffective legal representation on capital punishment. Primarily, however, the course is about the law; the rules and procedures which govern who is, and is not, subject to the death penalty; what principles does the law invoke to distinguish death-worthy cases from cases where the sanction of death itself would be unlawful. We will also consider moral and philosophical questions about the death penalty to the extent that such questions affect or influence legal thought and policy, and explore some emerging issues implicated by most recent death penalty jurisprudence.