Related Resources: Books, Reports, Studies, and Other Media on the Death Penalty

Books

• America's Experiment With Capital Punishment: Reflections on the Past, Present, and Future of the Ultimate Penal Sanction edited by James Acker, Robert Bohm, Charles Lanier (2003)
• The Death Penalty in America: Current Controversies edited by Hugo Bedau (1998)
• Deathquest III : An Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Capital Punishment in the United States by Robert Bohm (2007)
• The Death Penalty: An American History by Stuart Banner (2002)
• Just Revenge: Costs and Consequences of the Death Penalty by Mark Costanzo (1997)
• Death by Design: Capital Punishment As a Social Psychological System by Craig Haney (2005)
• Death Work: A Study of the Modern Execution Process by Robert Johnson (2005)
• Capital Punishment in America: A Balanced Explanation by Evan Mandery (2004)
• Women on the Row: Revelations from Both Sides of the Bars by Kathleen O'Shea (2000)

Handbooks

• Capital Defense Handbook for Defendants and their Families - This report, prepared by the GrassRoots Investigation Project of Equal Justice and the USA National Death Row Assistance Network of CURE, outlines the basic processes in a state capital trial.

Reports on the Application of the Death Penalty

• Reports by the American Bar Association's Death Penalty Moratorium Project
• The Constitution Project’s “Mandatory Justice: The Death Penalty Revisited (2006)
• The American Bar Association’s “Achieving Justice: Freeing the Innocent, Convicting the Guilty” (2006)
• James Liebman “A Broken System: Error Rates in Capital Cases 1973-1995” (2000)
• James Liebman “ A Broken System II: Why is There So Much Error and What Can Be Done About It” (2002)

Official State Studies on the Death Penalty

• Individual State Assessments by the American Bar Association's Death Penalty Moratorium Project
• Arizona Capital Case Commission Report (2002)
• Connecticut Commission on the Death Penalty (2003)
• Illinois Governor’s Commission on Capital Punishment (2002)
• The Application of Indiana’s Capital Sentencing Law (2002)
• Report of the Kansas Judicial Council Death Penalty Advisory Committee on Certain Issues Related to the Death Penalty (2004)
• An Empirical Analysis of Maryland’s Death Sentencing System with Respect to the Influence of Race and Legal Jurisdiction (2003)
• Report to the New Jersey Supreme Court Systemic Proportionality Review Project (2001)
• Final Report of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Committee on Racial and Gender Bias in the Justice System (1999)
• Virginia Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission Review of Virginia’s System of Capital Punishment (2001)
• Wisconsin Criminal Justice Study Commission Preliminary Report (2005)

Film

• Part 1 of a Death Penalty Debate between Robert Blecker and Robert Bohm (approximately a half hour running time)*
• Part 2 of the Debate between Robert Blecker and Robert Bohm (approximately a half hour running time)*
• Video Tour of North Carolina's Execution Process with Warden Marvin Polk (Video by Scott Langley, Langley Creations Documentaries)
• The Thin Blue Line
• The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal: A Case of Reasonable Doubt?
• The Farm: Angola, USA
• The Execution of Wanda Jean
• Deadline
• After Innocence
• Race to Execution
• At the Death House Door
• Death Row, Aisle Seat - a critique of the death penalty in major motion pictures, by Austin Sarat

*Please contact us for other streaming formats.

Podcasts

• Bryan Stevenson Discussing the Effects of Atkins in the South (DePaul Law Review)
• Video Version of Bryan Stevenson Discussing the Effects of Atkins in the South (DePaul Law Review)
• Reflections on the Death Penalty with Sister Helen Prejean

Internships

• Internship Opportunities in Capital Defense Offices for Law Students

Blogs

• Death Penalty Course @ Moritz College of Law A Demonstration Project Conducted with the Support of the Law Professor Blogs Network
• CrimProf Blog A Member of the Law Professor Blogs Network
• Pardon Power This blog is dedicated to following the very latest news regarding presidential pardons and the pardon power as exercised in each state.