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Imprisoned by the Past: Warren McCleskey and the American Death Penalty

Imprisoned by the Past: Warren McCleskey and the American Death Penalty

Author: Jeffrey L. Kirchmeier
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780190653002

Published In: December 2016
Format: Paperback
Jurisdiction: U.K. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only
Hardback Edition ISBN: 9780199967933

List Price: HKD 506.87

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Description
Contents

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In 1987, the United States Supreme Court decided a case that could have ended the death penalty in the United States. Imprisoned by the Past: Warren McCleskey and the American Death Penalty examines the long history of the American death penalty and its connection to the case of Warren McCleskey, revealing how that case marked a turning point for the history of the death penalty.

In this book, Jeffrey L. Kirchmeier explores one of the most important Supreme Court cases in history, a case that raised important questions about race and punishment, and ultimately changed the way we understand the death penalty today.

McCleskey's case resulted in one of the most important Supreme Court decisions in U.S. history, where the Court confronted evidence of racial discrimination in the administration of capital punishment. The case currently marks the last time that the Supreme Court had a realistic chance of completely striking down capital punishment.

As such, the case also marked a turning point in the death penalty debate in the country. Going back nearly four centuries, this book connects McCleskey's life and crime to the issues that have haunted the American death penalty debate since the first executions by early settlers through the modern twenty-first century death penalty.

Imprisoned by the Past ties together three unique American stories. First, the book considers the changing American death penalty across centuries where drastic changes have occurred in the last fifty years. Second, the book discusses the role that race played in that history. And third, the book tells the story of Warren McCleskey and how his life and legal case brought together the other two narratives.

Preface

Introduction

Part A - Prologue

Prologue: America's Marietta

Part B - A Killing in Georgia

Chapter 1: A Death in Dixie

Chapter 2: The Trial of Warren McCleskey

Chapter 3: Offie Evans and McCleskey v. Zant

Part C - American Death Penalty History And the Courts

Chapter 4: The First Limits: The Early American Death Penalty through the 1850s

Chapter 5: Wars and Death Penalty Abolition: The Civil War Through Early 1900s

Chapter 6: A Time of Change: American Society and the Death Penalty 1950s through the 1960s