Abstract
In the United States of America, the controversy surrounding capital punishment
spans across every state as well as more than 100 years of debate. Also referred to as the
death penalty2, capital punishment includes “the practice of killing people as punishment
for serious crimes,” 3 according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. While many other
Western societies have abolished capital punishment from their legal systems4 either
formally or in practice, the United States has yet to abandon this institution. However, the
United States Supreme Court steadily limits the death penalty.
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This paper includes a survey of twenty-five cases pertaining to capital punishment5. I
begin by exploring the history of the death penalty. In Section II, I introduce the legal texts
central to the death penalty debate, the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, to make cases in
this paper easier to understand within a broader constitutional context. (from Introduction)
Description
Senior honors thesis. Opt-out. For access, contact: yair@yu.edu
