Capital Punishment Seminar

Catalog description

The death penalty is society's ultimate legal sanction, meant to be reserved for the worst of the worst. Given the finality and enormity of the government's deliberate taking of a human life, the United States Supreme Court has developed a complex jurisprudence regulating the imposition of the death sentence. In this seminar, we will study this constitutional framework for the modern death penalty. In addition, we will engage in a critical study of the institution of capital punishment, discussing topics such as the impact of capital crimes on victims' families, the theoretical rationales for capital punishment, the historical development of the death penalty, capital punishment in global law and practice, the impact of mental illness, race and poverty on how the death penalty is administered, and the sentencing of innocent persons to death.