| Description |
1 online resource (xv, 292 pages) : illustrations |
| Physical Medium |
polychrome |
| Description |
text file |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 275-283) and index. |
| 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. |
| Local Note |
eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America |
| Subject |
Capital punishment -- United States -- History.
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Capital punishment. |
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United States. |
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History. |
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Guilt (Law) -- United States -- History.
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Guilt (Law) |
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Judicial error -- United States -- History.
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Judicial error. |
| Genre/Form |
Electronic books.
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History.
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Electronic books.
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| Added Author |
Linn, Suzanna, 1966-
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Boydstun, Amber E., 1977-
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| Other Form: |
Print version: Baumgartner, Frank R., 1958- Decline of the death penalty and the discovery of innocence. Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2008 9780521887342 0521887348 (OCoLC)190967427 |
| ISBN |
9780511379321 (electronic book) |
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0511379323 (electronic book) |
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9780511376641 (ebook) |
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0511376642 (ebook) |
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0511378459 (electronic book) |
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9780511378454 (electronic book) |
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9780511790638 (electronic book) |
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0511790635 (electronic book) |
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9780521887342 (hardback) |
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0521887348 (hardback) |
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9780521715249 (paperback) |
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0521715245 (paperback) |
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