Law Commons^™

Fulfilling Porter's Promise, Danielle Allyn

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

Despite the Porter court’s reference to a “long tradition of according leniency to veterans,” in the criminal legal system, veterans are overrepresented on death rows across America, including Georgia’s. Most of these veterans come to death row with experiences of marginalization due to other aspects of their identity, such as race or mental disability.

This Article examines the cases of six men executed in Georgia, each with a history of military service, and each with experiences of disenfranchisement based on race and/or mental disability. At trial, each confronted legal risks that disproportionately place Black people and people with mental disabilities …

Capital Punishment And The Bifurcated Trial System, Alexandra Michalak

Grawemeyer Colloquium Papers

Capital punishment is a long-debated issue in United States public policy, with arguments ranging from complete abolition of the penalty to continuing the punishment in states that wish to do so. Regardless of evolving public opinion, numerous landmark Supreme Court cases have ruled capital punishment as constitutional under the Eighth Amendment, which outlaws cruel and unusual punishment. In Furman v. Georgia (1972), the court ruled in a 5-4 decision that certain applications of the death penalty were unconstitutional, vacating the current processes of capital punishment. After this decision, Georgia then adopted the bifurcated trial system to attempt to practice capital …

An Economic Analysis Of The Death Penalty, Martin Kasten

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

From an economic perspective, society should only use capital punishment if the marginal benefits outweigh the marginal costs. In the course of analyzing the economic efficiency of capital punishment, and before providing any recommendations, both the benefits and costs of the death penalty must be evaluated. Since the death penalty has been implemented for centuries, many people believe its benefits outweigh its costs. The evaluation of benefits in Part II will be compared to the costs assessed in Part III to determine if this long held assertion is correct.