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Capital Punishment As Human Sacrifice: A Societal Ritual As Depicted In George Eliot's Adam Bede, Roberta M. Harding
Capital Punishment As Human Sacrifice: A Societal Ritual As Depicted In George Eliot's Adam Bede, Roberta M. Harding
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
The purpose of this article is to identify, describe, and analyze the historic and contemporary connection between the practices of capital punishment and human sacrifice. After describing how human sacrifice constitutes an integral component of capital punishment, it will be argued that the institutionalization of this antiquated barbaric ritual, vis-a-vis the use of capital punishment, renders the present use of the death penalty in the United States incompatible with "the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society"; and that consequently, this facet of capital punishment renders the penalty at odds with the Eighth Amendment's prohibition …
The Gallows To The Gurney: Analyzing The (Un)Constitutionality Of The Methods Of Execution, Roberta M. Harding
The Gallows To The Gurney: Analyzing The (Un)Constitutionality Of The Methods Of Execution, Roberta M. Harding
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
The objective of this article is to examine this issue by formulating an analytical framework for determining when methods of execution constitute cruel and unusual punishment. This task is accomplished Part II by briefly tracing the historical evolution of the Eighth Amendment's Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause. Part III examines the prohibition's core components. Part IV reviews the traditional and modem interpretations of cruel and unusual punishment as applied to the methods of capital punishment, and assesses the standard with which to determine whether a specific method of execution comports with the present interpretation of cruel and unusual punishment as …