LAW 651 - Death Penalty Seminar

Course Type: Upper Writing Requirement
Credits: 2-3

Description: This course begins with a historical survey of the challenges to the death penalty in the Supreme Court that culminated in Furman v. Georgia (1972) and Gregg v. Georgia (1976). It addresses efforts at procedural regulation of the death penalty that continue to the present day. Topics include capital sentencing schemes; Eighth Amendment proportionality challenges (death as a punishment for non-homicide crimes, unintentional murders, juveniles, the intellectually disabled, and the mentally ill); racial disparity in capital punishment; jury sentencing; effective defense representation; victims’ interests; competence to be executed; and execution practices. This course will also engage with the purposes, justifications, and rationale behind capital punishment in law, philosophy, and politics.