The case for capital punishment
The ancient foundational legal codes of Western society distinguished more heinous killings from the less heinous and, with few exceptions, reserved the penalty of death for aggravated homicides. Modern American lawmakers, prosecutors (mostly popularly elected), and juries confront the same task: de...
| VerfasserInnen: | ; |
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| Medienart: | Druck Aufsatz |
| Sprache: | Englisch |
| Veröffentlicht: |
2024
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| In: |
The Elgar companion to capital punishment and society
Jahr: 2024, Seiten: 17-31 |
| Online-Zugang: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Verfügbarkeit prüfen: | HBZ Gateway |
| Schlagwörter: |
| Zusammenfassung: | The ancient foundational legal codes of Western society distinguished more heinous killings from the less heinous and, with few exceptions, reserved the penalty of death for aggravated homicides. Modern American lawmakers, prosecutors (mostly popularly elected), and juries confront the same task: determining whether a particular murder is so vile or a particular murderer so vicious that death is the fitting punishment. An examination of the details of the crimes committed by the 43 murderers put to death in 2012 arguably demonstrates that they were truly among “the worst of the worst” and fully merited the punishment they received. The chapter argues that while the death penalty saves some lives by affecting the self-interested calculations of would-be murderers, it likely saves many more by profoundly inculcating and reinforcing moral norms that make it less likely that those growing up in such a society would ever even consider murdering a fellow human being in the first place. |
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| Beschreibung: | Literaturverzeichnis: Seite 30-31 |
| ISBN: | 9781803929149 |
| DOI: | 10.4337/9781803929156.00008 |
