Home ›

News and Developments: Books

BOOKS: Against the Death Penalty: International Initiatives and Implications

Posted: December 04, 2008
in

A new book, Against the Death Penalty: International Initiatives and Implications, features leading scholars on the death penalty and their analysis of both the promotion and demise of the punishment around the world. It considers the current efforts to restrict the death penalty within the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the African Commission, and the Commonwealth Caribbean.

BOOKS: Jesus on Death Row

Posted: December 03, 2008
in

Mark Osler, a former federal prosecutor and present faculty member at a conservative Christian law school in Texas, has written Jesus on Death Row: The Trial of Jesus and American Capital Punishment. The book offers a comparison between the trial and execution of Jesus and a capital case conducted in the U.S. justice system.

BOOKS: Streib's Death Penalty in a Nutshell

Posted: October 23, 2008
in

Elon University School of Law’s Professor Victor Streib has released a new edition of his book, Streib’s Death Penalty in a Nutshell. It covers both the substantive and the procedural law of the death penalty and begins with arguments for and against the death penalty and an explanation of its basic constitutional challenges and limitations. Professor Streib covers capital crimes and defenses, as well as trial level and post trial procedural issues.

BOOKS: Execution's Doorstep: True Stories of the Innocent and Near Damned

Posted: October 08, 2008
in

In her new book, Execution’s Doorstep: The True Stories of the Innocent and Near Damned, author Leslie Lytle provides a compelling narrative recounting the harrowing journeys of five innocent men who spent many years on death row. Through extensive research and interviews, Lytle has succeeded in revealing the deep pain and suffering that such injustice yields, putting a human face to the recurring problem of innocence on death row.

BOOKS: Abolition, One Man's Battle Against the Death Penalty

Posted: August 19, 2008
in

A compelling narrative of the legal and political fight to end the death penalty in France has just been released in an English translation. Abolition: One Man’s Battle Against the Death Penalty is authored by Robert Badinter, probably the single person most responsible for abolishing the death penalty in France. He begins his story in 1972 when one of his clients was guillotined in a case he felt was unjust.

BOOKS: Murder and the Death Penalty in Massachusetts

Posted: July 08, 2008
in

Murder and the Death Penalty in Massachusetts by Alan Rogers explores the unique history of the capital punishment in Massachusetts. Rogers chronicles the more than 300 years that Massachusetts executed men and women in the state through to the eventual abolition of the punishment in 1984. The historical approach recounts the Puritans’ views on capital punishment in the 1700’s, the 1830’s House vote that almost abolished the death penalty, and the cases that were the turning point for the state.

BOOKS: The Death Penalty: A Worldwide Perspective

Posted: May 14, 2008
in
The Death Penalty: A Worldwide Perspective by Roger Hood and Carolyn Hoyle is the Fourth Edition of a text that highlights the latest developments in the death penalty around the world. Roger Hood utilizes his experience as a consultant to the United Nations' annual survey of capital punishment in compiling a wide range of information from non-governmental organizations and academic literature.

NEW VOICES: "How New Jersey Abolished the Death Penalty"

Posted: May 07, 2008
in

In 1982, as a second term Assemblyman, Raymond Lesniak voted to reinstate the death penalty in New Jersey. In December 2007, New Jersey voted to abolish the death penalty, becoming the first state in 40 years to accomplish this. Senator Lesniak was one of the sponsors and legislative leaders of the abolition bill. He has written a new book: "The Road to Abolition: How New Jersey Abolished the Death Penatly."

BOOKS: “Last Rights” by Rev. Joseph Ingle with Introduction by Mike Farrell

Posted: March 11, 2008
in

Reverend Joseph B. Ingle’s book, Last Rights: Thirteen Fatal Encounters with the State's Justice, will be re-released in May with a new introduction by Mike Farrell (of M*A*S*H*) and with its original forward by William Styron.  Rev. Ingle, who has counseled inmates on death row for over 30 years, recounts his close relationships with 13 of these inmates before their executions.

BOOKS: The Innocence Commission

Posted: March 04, 2008
in

The Innocence Commission, a new book by Jon B. Gould, describes how the advent of DNA testing and other forensic advances in the criminal justice system have led to serious efforts to understand how so many wrongful convictions have happened.