The Death Penalty Today

Respected for his evenhanded contributions to the death penalty debate, editor Robert Bohm calls upon experts to address legal, empirical, political, and philosophical aspects of capital punishment. The first of two sections focuses on miscarriages of justice, including errors in conviction and possible remedies. It reviews potential causes of wrongful conviction, considers the responsibility of the state for reintegration of the wrongfully convicted, and debates the humanity of lethal injections. The next section considers the first amendment and governmental accountability, reveals the phenomenon of consensual executions as assisted suicide, and evaluates the curious dichotomy in logic between the reviled practice of lynching and government-sanctioned executions.