The Slow Death of the Death Penalty

As the American death penalty has faded from our courtrooms, this highly readable and compelling volume collects the perspectives of frontline visionaries, scholars, and lawyers, conducting an autopsy of the penalty itself. * Brandon L. Garrett, author of End of Its Rope: How Killing the Death Penalty Can Revive Criminal Justice * Those who favor the death penalty frequently cite tired theoretical tropes to condone its use—that the killer will never kill again, that executing them permanently removes them from society, or that executing them is cheaper and more efficient than ‘three hots and a cot’ in prison for life. These essays, however—written by some of America’s most renowned death penalty scholars—rip the lid off these theories to expose the true rotting underbelly of America’s death sentencing. The arbitrariness of those selected to die, the racial and gender inequalities, the bloated cost and wasteful bureaucracies, the pervasive law enforcement and prosecutorial corruption, and the absolute lack of deterrence are on full, bloody display. Whether for the death penalty or against, this book is a must read. * Dale M. Brumfield, author of Closing the Slaughterhouse: The Inside Story of Death Penalty Abolition in Virginia * The Slow Death of the Death Penalty is a timely and eloquent book that helps us understand the decline of the death penalty in the last few decades. It is an essential source for scholars of the death penalty and a post mortem that will be remembered as a bellwether in legal studies. * Robert Johnson, co-author of Bone Orchard: Reflections on Life Under Sentence of Death * In The Slow Death of the Death Penalty some of our most distinguished death penalty scholars reflect on the secular decline of American capital punishment, describing the processes that will, they believe, end the practice once and for all. At a moment when US federal authorities are bent on reviving this barbaric, anachronistic practice, this longer-term perspective is more vital than ever. * David Garland, author of Peculiar Institution: America’s Death Penalty in an Age of Abolition *