The Death Penalty ─ Constitutional Issues, Commentaries, and Case Briefs

The Death Penalty, Third Edition, brings together all the legal issues related to the death penalty and provides case briefs for the most important United States Supreme Court death penalty cases. No other book available brings together a discussion of the major constitutional issues surrounding the death penalty with a broad array of associated case briefs. The authors classify cases according to legal issues and provide a commentary on the various sub-topics, presenting legal materials in an easily understood form. Though the primary audiences of the book are undergraduates in criminal justice programs and practitioners in the corrections and justice systems, the book will also prove useful to anyone who has an interest in the death penalty, the criminal justice system, or the United States Constitution.

Every chapter starts with commentaries regarding general case law in a sub-topic, such as aggravating and mitigating factors, followed by a chart of the cases briefed in the chapter, and then the case briefs. These case briefs acquaint the reader with Supreme Court cases by summarizing facts, issues, reasons, and holdings. The Death Penalty, Third Edition, is a succinct, trusted guide to the law of capital punishment in the United States.

• Offers a large number of case briefs from the most important and most recent Supreme Court decisions involving the death penalty to illustrate evolution of death penalty law and the Constitutional standing of capital punishment


• Reflects significant shifts in the social and political climate surrounding the death penalty over the last 4 years


• Provides updated discussion of key death penalty trends and issues including those associated with number of executions, wrongful convictions/executions, public attitudes and support for the death penalty, and current controversies surrounding its use

Scott Vollum is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology-Anthropology at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, where he primarily teaches classes on violence, the death penalty, restorative justice, criminological theory, and research methods. He conducts research and writes on a variety of topics related to the death penalty, including attitudes about the death penalty and experiences of those impacted by the death penalty (e.g., condemned death row inmates, co-victims of capital murder, and death row exonerees). He also conducts research on and writes about moral disengagement, restorative justice, violence against animals, and crime and justice in popular culture.

Rolando V. del Carmen retired in May 2011 as Distinguished Professor of Criminal Justice (Law) in the College of Criminal Justice, Sam Houston State University. He has authored numerous books and articles in various areas of law related to criminal justice. He has won all three major awards given by the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, and has taught numerous graduate and undergraduate classes in law and has been a mentor and friend to many of his students.

Durant Frantzen is Associate Professor of Criminology in the College of Arts and Sciences at Texas A&M University, San Antonio. His research focuses on offender reentry and recidivism, domestic violence policy, and the death penalty. He teaches courses on forensic psychology, statistics, victimology, and comparative systems in criminal justice.

Claudia San Miguel is an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice and Chair of the Department of Public Affairs and Social Research at Texas A&M International University in Laredo, Texas. Her research focuses on the trafficking of women and children, dating violence, domestic violence, and various policing issues. She has traveled to England, Poland, Sweden, Austria, and Spain to help form collaborative relationships with their anti-trafficking task forces. She has also taught courses for the Department of State in Roswell, New Mexico, on global human trafficking at the International Law Enforcement Academy.

Kelly Cheeseman was Associate Professor and Chair of the Criminal Justice Program at Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania. Her research interests included female offenders, prison deviance, correctional officer stress and job satisfaction, institutional corrections, the death penalty, ethics, and sexually deviant behavior.