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Author Baumgartner, Frank R., 1958-

Title The decline of the death penalty and the discovery of innocence / Frank R. Baumgartner, Suzanna L. De Boef, Amber E. Boydstun
Published Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, ©2008
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Description 1 online resource (xv, 292 pages) : illustrations
Contents List of tables -- List of figures -- Acknowledgments -- 1: Innocence and the death penalty debate -- 2: Death penalty in America -- 3: Chronology of innocence -- 4: Shifting terms of debate -- 5: Innocence, resonance, and old arguments made new again -- 6: Public opinion -- 7: Rise and fall of a public policy -- 8: Conclusion -- Epilogue: Individuals exonerated from death row -- Appendix A: New York Times capital punishment coverage, 1960 to 2005 -- Appendix B: Description of data -- Notes -- References -- Index
Summary Overview: Since 1996, death sentences in America have declined more than 60 percent, reversing a generation-long trend toward greater acceptance of capital punishment. In theory, most Americans continue to support the death penalty. But it is no longer seen as a theoretical matter. Prosecutors, judges, and juries across the country have moved in large numbers to give much greater credence to the possibility of mistakes-mistakes that in this arena are potentially fatal. The discovery of innocence, documented here through painstaking analyses of media coverage and with newly developed methods, has led to historic shifts in public opinion and to a sharp decline in use of the death penalty by juries across the country. A social cascade, starting with legal clinics and innocence projects, has snowballed into a national phenomenon that may spell the end of the death penalty in America
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 275-283) and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Capital punishment -- United States -- History
Guilt (Law) -- United States -- History
Judicial error -- United States -- History
LAW -- Criminal Law -- General.
Capital punishment
Guilt (Law)
Judicial error
Todesstrafe
Strafrecht
United States
USA
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
Author Linn, Suzanna, 1966-
Boydstun, Amber E., 1977-
ISBN 9780511379321
0511379323
9780511376641
0511376642
0511378459
9780511378454
9780511790638
0511790635