NCJ Number
142550
Journal
Criminal Law Bulletin Volume: 29 Issue: 3 Dated: (May-June 1993) Pages: 219-240
Date Published
1993
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This first of 11 articles on capital punishment law and the development of a model law explains the rationale for this project and provides an overview of capital punishment in the United States by identifying the jurisdictions that authorize the death penalty and by describing the populations of offenders that have been sentenced to death and executed in the post-Furman years.
Abstract
Death penalty laws in the United States are in effect in the Federal jurisdiction and in 36 States. The statutes are similar in that all authorize the government to exact an offender's life as punishment upon conviction of a capital offense; however, the detailed substantive provisions and procedures vary greatly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Although under current caselaw there is no single right way and few constitutionally wrong ways for the States to craft their death penalty statutes, there still may be better and worse ways to design and implement capital punishment legislation. "Better" statutes should reflect deliberate legislative choices concerning the desired objectives of the capital sanction, such as deterrence, retribution, or incapacitation. They should incorporate procedures that are tailored narrowly in an effort to promote the enunciated penological objectives and that are designed to minimize arbitrariness, invidious discrimination, and the risk of error in capital punishment decisions. The rationale for the reform recommended by this series of articles is that since the courts are unlikely to take the lead in requiring death penalty reforms and the legislatures are unwilling to consider repealing capital punishment statutes in their entirety, the most promising short-term strategy for accomplishing change in death penalty laws is to advocate statutory reforms that stop short of outright abolition. 71 footnotes