This new edition of a classic study assesses the global status of capital punishment. As in previous editions, this work draws on Roger Hood's experiences as consultant to the United Nations for the Secretary General's five-yearly surveys of capital punishment as well as the latest literature from non-governmental organizations and academic experts.
This edition examines significant developments around the world including the Chinese plan for the People's Supreme Court to review all death sentences, and the abolition in the USA of the death penalty for offenders who committed murder while under the age of 18. Recent legal challenges to lethal injection as a form of execution are also examined. This edition also includes an additional chapter on the role and influence of victims' families and victim interest movements.
This volume shows how, despite a number of set-backs, the movement to abolish the death penalty has continued to gather pace; that international organizations and human rights treaties continue to put pressure on retentionist countries; that further developments have been made in securing protection for those facing the death penalty in retentionist counties; and that, despite such advances, in some parts of the world the range of crimes subject to the death penalty remains wide and the number of executions considerable. This work engages with the latest debates on the realities of capital punishment, with claims that the death penalty is a unique deterrent to murder and other serious crimes, and contains expanded coverage of arguments about the role of public opinion in the debate on capital punishment.
Author(s): Roger G. Hood; Carolyn Hoyle
Edition: Hardcover
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Year: 2008
Language: English
Pages: 486
Tags: Capital punishment
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction 1
1. Sources of Information 1
2. Plan of the Book 4
3. Th e Approach Taken towards Capital Punishment 6
1. Th e Abolitionist Movement: Progress and Prospects 9
1. Th e Pace of Abolition 9
2. Generating the New Wave of Abolition 18
3. What Prospects for International Acceptance or
Rejection of Capital Punishment? 32
2. In the Vanguard of Abolition 40
1. Western Europe and Australasia:
Death Penalty Free Zones 40
2. Eastern Europe: Embracing Abolition 50
3. States of the Former Soviet Union: From Moratoria
to Abolition De Jure 53
4. South and Central America: Long-term Supporters
of Abolition 61
3. Where Capital Punishment Remains Contested 66
1. Th e Middle East and North Africa: Cracks
in the Bastion? 66
2. Africa South of the Sahara: Resistance to
Abolition Crumbling? 73
3. Asia and the Pacifi c: Opening up the Issue 84
4. Th e Caribbean: Colonial Legacies 103
5. North America: Faltering Support 111
4. Th e Scope of Capital Punishment in Law 129
1. Off ences Punishable By Death 129
2. Th e Scale of Death Sentences and Executions 146
x Contents
5. Th e Death Penalty in Reality: Th e Process of Execution
and the Death Row Experience 155
1. Executing those found to be Guilty 155
2. Under Sentence of Death 172
3. Conclusion 186
6. Excluding the Vulnerable from Capital Punishment 187
1. Juvenile Defendants 187
2. Th e Question of the Aged 194
3. Th e Exemption of Pregnant Women 195
4. Th e Status of the Mentally Retarded 196
5. Protection of the Insane and Severely Mentally Ill 203
6. Conclusion 214
7. Protecting the Accused and Ensuring Due Process 215
1. International Standards 215
2. Ensuring a Fair Trial 217
3. Th e Right to Appeal 250
4. Th e Right to Seek a Pardon, Clemency, or
Commutation of Sentence 257
5. Finality of Judgment: Awaiting the Outcome
of Legal Proceedings 264
6. Wrongful Convictions and Innocent Persons Exonerated 266
7. Conclusions 276
8. Deciding Who Should Die: Problems of Inequity,
Arbitrariness, and Racial Discrimination 278
1. Mandatory or Discretionary? 278
2. Legal Analyses: Th e American Experience 287
3. Criminological Investigations 299
4. Policy Implications 311
9. Th e Question of Deterrence 317
1. Reliance on the Deterrent Justifi cation 317
2. Conceptual Issues: Th e Need for Clarifi cation 321
3. General Deterrence in Context 322
4. Assessing Homicide Trends 325
5. Th e Comparative Method 329
6. Measuring the Immediate Impact 333
Contents xi
7. Th e Econometric Model 337
8. Methodological Problems in Measuring the
Deterrent Eff ect 344
9. Implications for Policy 347
10. A Question of Opinion or a Question of Principle? 350
1. Public Opinion and the Politics of Abolition 350
2. Th e Nature of Public Opinion 358
3. Changing Public Opinion 366
4. Abolition and its Eff ect on Public Opinion 375
5. Th e Impact of Victims’ Advocates on Support for
the Death Penalty 378
6. A Question of Principle 381
11. Th e Challenge of a Suitable Replacement 383
1. Th e Nature of the Challenge 383
2. Th e Range of Alternative Penalties 385
3. Th e Ascendancy of Life Without Parole in America 388
4. Life Without Hope: Th e New Challenge to Human Dignity 392
5. Conditions of Confi nement 395
6. Th e Challenge of Sentencing Juveniles
Convicted of Murder 398
7. Implications for Policy 402
Appendices 404
1. Lists of Retentionist and Abolitionist Countries 404
2. Ratifi cation of International Treaties 414
3. International Instruments 417
Bibliography 422
Cases Cited 455
Index 461
