LAW 763 - Death Penalty

Credits: 2
Description: This course begins with a historical survey of the challenges to the death penalty in the Supreme Court that culminated in Furman (1972) and Gregg (1976), and that were followed by a long effort at procedural regulation that continues to the present time. Topics covered will include Eighth Amendment proportionality challenges (death as punishment for non-homicidal crimes, unintentional murders, juveniles, the mentally retarded and the mentally ill), racial disparity, jury sentencing, effective defense representation, the law of actual innocence, the changing politics of capital punishment, and international law and practice. The course will also attempt to evaluate the death penalty in the context of the enormous expansion of the American penal system as a whole since the 1970s.