Law Commons^™

An Examination Of The Death Penalty, Alexandra N. Kremer

The Downtown Review

The death penalty, or capital punishment, is the use of execution through hanging, beheading, drowning, gas chambers, lethal injection, and electrocution among others in response to a crime. This has spurred much debate on whether it should be used for reasons such as ethics, revenge, economics, effectiveness as a deterrent, and constitutionality. Capital punishment has roots that date back to the 18^th century B.C., but, as of 2016, has been abolished in law or practice by more than two thirds of the world’s countries and several states within the United States. Here, the arguments for and against the death …

Punishment Without Purpose: The Retributive And Utilitarian Failures Of The Child Pornography Non-Production Sentencing Guidelines, Brittany Lowe

Cleveland State Law Review

Pursuant to the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, Congress established the U.S. Sentencing Commission to formulate an empirical set of federal sentencing Guidelines. With the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, Congress intended to further the basic purposes of criminal punishment—deterrence, incapacitation, just punishment, and rehabilitation. Nevertheless, the Guidelines were instantaneously met with disapproval. Asserting that the mandatory Guidelines violated the Constitution, scholars and judges argued that the Commission usurped Congress’s role by prescribing punishments that were essentially binding law. In 2005, the Supreme Court held that the Guidelines were discretionary in United States v. Booker.

While this decision resolved many of …

On The Abolition Of Man: A Discussion Of The Moral And Legal Issues Surrounding The Death Penalty, Thomas J. Walsh

Cleveland State Law Review

This article examines the moral and practical arguments supporting the death penalty in an effort to show why the United States should join other Western nations in the abolition of the death penalty. First, this article explores the historical context of the death penalty in the United States and examines the current status of constitutional doctrine on the death penalty. Next, because an analysis of the arguments for and against the death penalty are invariably charged with moral issues, an effort will be made to examine the moral aspects of the death penalty. The arguments offered in support of the …

Punishment: The Civil Perspective Of Punitive Damages, Bailey Kuklin

Cleveland State Law Review

Punitive, or exemplary damages, have been recognized in the Anglo-American common law systems for two centuries. This Article explores the consequences of treating punitive damages as a private means of punishment. Light is shed on the controversies surrounding, first, the attempt to adopt a standard of punishment, private or public, and second, to apply such a standard. The concentration on punitive damages for this exploratory undertaking, instead of criminal sanctions, avoids the need to account for additional imputed public penal purposes, such as rehabilitation and isolation. As a preliminary matter, the emphasis of this Article should be made clear. The …

Islamic Law And The Crime Of Theft: An Introduction, David F. Forte

Cleveland State Law Review

This Article introduces the concept of theft in Islamic law. As such, it does not pretend to be comprehensive either in the data it puts forth or in its analysis. Rather, the Article raises a number of issues for discussion, and offers, most tentatively, suggested answers to the following points: 1) whether theft in Islamic law properly belongs to the species of manifest criminality; 2) what possible justifications exist for such an extreme penalty; 3) what were the requirements for conviction; and 4) some concluding observations as to why the classical jurists encumbered a prosecution for theft with so many …

The Deterrent Effect Of The Death Penalty For Murder In Ohio: A Time-Series Analysis, William C. Bailey

Cleveland State Law Review

One thing is abundantly clear from the analysis reported in this article: if Ohio is to reinstate capital punishment, its justification will have to be based upon grounds other than the deterrent effect of the death penalty for murder. Notwithstanding the opinion of some members of the United States Supreme Court, and possibly a majority of the Ohio House and Senate, the present analysis of Ohio's experience with capital punishment provides no justification for reinstating the death penalty as an effective means of dealing with the state's murder problem.

Should Ohio Abolish Capital Punishment, Richard J. Goetz

Cleveland State Law Review

In view of all the controversy surrounding this topic, it is interesting to review the history of the death penalty in Ohio, in other states, and elsewhere in the world.