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Atoning For Dred Scott And Plessy While Substantially Abolishing The Death Penalty, Scott W. Howe
Atoning For Dred Scott And Plessy While Substantially Abolishing The Death Penalty, Scott W. Howe
Washington Law Review
Has the Supreme Court adequately atoned for Dred Scott and Plessy? A Court majority has never confessed and apologized for the horrors associated with those decisions. And the horrors are so great that Dred Scott and Plessy have become the anti-canon of constitutional law. Given the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the Court’s historical complicity in the brutal campaign against African Americans, this Article contends that the Court could appropriately do more to atone.
The Article asserts that the Court could profitably pursue atonement while abolishing capital punishment for aggravated murder. The Article shows why substantial abolition of the capital sanction would …