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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Articles 1 - 8 of 8

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The Paradox Of Death Penalty Delay: A Judicial, Empirical, And Ethical Study, Zoë Gill Apr 2023

The Paradox Of Death Penalty Delay: A Judicial, Empirical, And Ethical Study, Zoë Gill

Senior Theses and Projects

The American death penalty has been at the center of political debates for decades. More specifically, the complexity of death penalty delay has gained significant attention from the public as well as the Supreme Court justices. Death penalty delay represents the time that transpires between when a capital crime is committed and when the execution is carried out. Today, more than half of all prisoners currently sentenced to death have been on death row for more than 18 years. This staggering statistic has ignited debate and divided the conservative justices from the liberal justices even more. This thesis will first …


As Seen On Screen: American Ambivalence Shown Through Death Penalty And Vigilante Films, Lisette Donewald May 2022

As Seen On Screen: American Ambivalence Shown Through Death Penalty And Vigilante Films, Lisette Donewald

Honors Scholar Theses

The United States is one of the last western nations still practicing capital punishment. A history of and commitment to vigilantism and its ideals offers an explanation of America’s retention of capital punishment. Employing scholarship on law and popular culture and vigilantism, this thesis finds that pro-death penalty frames are prevalent in vigilante films while anti-death penalty frames are prevalent in films that focus specifically upon capital punishment. Since the 1960’s however, there has been a gradual shift towards anti-death penalty frames and away from pro-death penalty frames as well as changes in the themes presented in the two genres …


The Republican Party, Conservatives, And The Future Of Capital Punishment, Ben Jones Jan 2018

The Republican Party, Conservatives, And The Future Of Capital Punishment, Ben Jones

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

The United States has experienced a significant decline in the death penalty during the first part of the twenty-first century, as death sentences, executions, public support, and states with capital punishment all have declined. Many recent reforms banning or placing a moratorium on executions have occurred in blue states, in line with the notion that ending the death penalty is a progressive cause. Challenging this narrative, however, is the emergence of Republican lawmakers as champions of death penalty repeal legislation in red states. This Article puts these efforts by Republican lawmakers into historical context and explains the conservative case against …


From Rapists To Superpredators: What The Practice Of Capital Punishment Says About Race, Rights And The American Child, Robyn Linde Mar 2011

From Rapists To Superpredators: What The Practice Of Capital Punishment Says About Race, Rights And The American Child, Robyn Linde

Faculty Publications

At the turn of the 20th century, the United States was widely considered to be a world leader in matters of child protection and welfare, a reputation lost by the century’s end. This paper suggests that the United States’ loss of international esteem concerning child welfare was directly related to its practice of executing juvenile offenders. The paper analyzes why the United States continued to carry out the juvenile death penalty after the establishment of juvenile courts and other protections for child criminals. Two factors allowed the United States to continue the juvenile death penalty after most states in …


Assembly's Final Report Jan 2010

Assembly's Final Report

CACTUS--Citizens' Assembly for Critical Thinking About the United States

Each CACTUS brings new excitement along with new challenges. CACTUS 2010 was exciting because it was larger than in past years, more freshmen enrolled than in previous years, and our topic “What should we do about the death penalty? Keep it? Change it? Abolish it?” was by far the most profound, with implications touching on topics such as social justice, safety, equality, religious and ethical arguments, the Bill of Rights, and federalism, to name just a few.


2010 Referendum Question Jan 2010

2010 Referendum Question

CACTUS--Citizens' Assembly for Critical Thinking About the United States

The student members of the 2010 Citizens’ Assembly for Critical Thinking about the United States (CACTUS) have studied and deliberated about the death penalty all semester, considering whether to recommend keeping, changing, or abolishing the death penalty in the United States. Having reached agreement on a recommendation for action, the Assembly hereby invites all members of the University community to vote on whether to implement the following recommendation:


2010 Mandate: What Should We Do About The Death Penalty? Jan 2010

2010 Mandate: What Should We Do About The Death Penalty?

CACTUS--Citizens' Assembly for Critical Thinking About the United States

The 2010 Citizens’ Assembly for Critical Thinking about the United States (CACTUS) must study arguments and proposals for keeping, changing or eliminating the death penalty, identify and analyze the perceived issues and problems leading to the proposals, including arguments in support of the death penalty as now it now exists in the United States. The Assembly must then decide whether the death penalty should be kept as it currently exists or that a change is warranted, and if so at what level or levels of government or through what type of Constitutional amendment the changes should be implemented; and if …


Is The Death Penalty Dying?, Sharon Coe Jan 1968

Is The Death Penalty Dying?, Sharon Coe

Honors Theses

Now that fourteen states, almost one-third of our country, have abolished the death penalty, it is causing other states to stop and examine capital punishment and see if the extreme penalty is really the most effective penalty.