Peter Hodgkinson is the Founder and Director of the Centre for Capital Punishment Studies, Westminster University Law School, London. Prior to joining Westminster in 1989 he was a Probation Officer for 15 years. He has published extensively on Capital Punishment. William A. Schabas is Professor of Human Rights Law at the National University of Ireland and Director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights. He has published numerous books and articles and is editor -in-chief of Criminal Law Forum.

Klappentext

A comparative exploration of issues around the use or abolition of the death penalty.

Zusammenfassung
What are the critical factors that determine whether a country replaces, retains or restores the death penalty? Why do some countries maintain the death penalty in theory but in reality rarely invoke it? This book seeks to identify the core issues that influence governments when formulating policy on capital punishment.

Inhalt

List of figures; List of tables; Notes on the contributors; 1. Capital punishment: improve it or remove it? Peter Hodgkinson; 2. International law and the death penalty: reflecting or promoting change? William A. Schabas; 3. Doctors and the death penalty: ethics and a cruel punishment Robert Ferris and James Welsh; 4. Replacing the death penalty: the vexed issue of alternative sanctions Andrew Coyle; 5. Religion and the death penalty in the United States: past and present James J. Megivern; 6. On botched executions Marian J. Borg and Michael L. Radelet; 7. Death as a penalty in the Shari' M. Cherif Bassiouni; 8. Abolishing the death penalty in the United States: an analysis of institutional obstacles and future prospects Hugo Adam Bedau; 9. Capital punishment in the United State: moratorium efforts and other key developments Ronald J. Tabak; 10. The experiences of Lithuania's journey to abolition Alexsandras Dobryninas; 11. The death penalty in South Korea and Japan: 'Asian values' and the debate about capital punishment? Byung-Sun Cho; 12. Georgia, former republic of the USSR: managing abolition Eric Svanidze; 13. Capital punishment in the Commonwealth Caribbean: colonial inheritance, colonial remedy? Julian B. Knowles; 14. Public opinion and the death penalty William A. Schabas; 15. Capital punishment: meeting the needs of the families of the homicide victim and the condemned Peter Hodgkinson; Index.