RT Article T1 The death penalty: a 25-year retrospective and a perspective on the future JF Criminal justice review VO 21 IS 2 SP 139 OP 160 A1 Acker, James R. 1951- LA English YR 1996 UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1640127801 AB Death penalty law has been transformed dramatically over the last 25 years. By some measures, judicial and legislative initiatives have produced substantial improvements in the administration of capital punishment. By other accounts, changes in death penalty laws have been sorely inadequate to remedy basic defects in capital punishment systems. This article reviews the development of death penalty law over the past quarter century. It focuses on the substantive and procedural changes that have occurred in capital punishment jurisprudence since the Supreme Court decided McGautha v. California (1971). After reviewing the watershed rulings of the early and middle 1970s, including Funnan v. Georgia (1972), Gregg v. Georgia (1976), and Woodson v. K1 Todesstrafe K1 USA