Death Penalty Cases

BARRY LATZER is Professor of Government at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a member of the Ph.D. and M.A. faculties in Criminal Justice at the Graduate School and University Center. He received a law degree (J.D.) from Fordham University (1985) and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (1977). Professor Latzer is also known for his work on state constitutional law, which is the subject of two of his books, State Constitutional Criminal Law (Clark, Boardman, Callaghan, 1995), and State Constitutions and Criminal Justice (Greenwood, 1991). He has published over two dozen scholarly articles and writes a continuing series of articles for the Criminal Law Bulletin, entitled "State Constitutional Developments."

"Barry Latzer and David McCord’s latest edition of Death Penalty Cases breaks new ground in providing thoughtful and balanced analysis of all important legal issues surrounding the death penalty. From the subject of why we should have (or not have) capital punishment, to the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence on cruel and unusual punishment, to victim impact evidence and claims of actual innocence, the inquiring reader will find penetrating dissections of every major topic swirling around the death penalty debate. This book moves far beyond sloganeering to expose the fault lines in the debates and gives both sides their due. For anyone who truly wants to understand the law surrounding capital punishment, Death Penalty Cases, Third Edition is a 'must read." --Paul G. Cassell, Ronald N. Boyce Presidential Professor of Criminal Law, S.J. Quinney College of Law-University of Utah"This volume is a gem. Latzer and McCord have carefully selected and edited landmark Supreme Court decisions encompassing the justice’s far-ranging, fascinating, and inevitably controversial capital punishment jurisprudence. The result is a compact, highly useful, comprehensive, and—to their great credit—balanced and even-handed representation of the complex constitutional, ethical, and empirical issues that distinguish this compelling body of law. " --James R. Acker, Distinguished Teaching Professor, School of Criminal Justice, SUNY-Albany"Given the attention paid to the death penalty by judges, lawyers and the public, I always have been surprised by the difficulty of finding a first-rate casebook to teach the subject. With this book, Barry Latzer and David McCord have admirably met that challenge. Their organization, with cases edited to just the right level of comprehensiveness for teaching, sets out the perfect blueprint from which the student can build an understanding of the intricacies of the Supreme Court's death penalty jurisprudence." --Scott Sundby, Sydney and Francis Lewis Professor, Washington and Lee University School of Law"The chief strengths of Death Penalty Cases are that it is beautifully edited and that it is comprehensive, and the new structure of the third edition -- organized around five sections -- is brilliant." --Beau Breslin, PhD, Assistant Dean of the Faculty, Director of the First-Year Experience, and Professor of Government, Skidmore College

• 1. The Law and the IssuesSection I: Foundational Cases2. Cruel and Unusual as Applied: Furman v. Georgia3. Not Inherently Unconstitutional: Gregg v. Georgia4. Mandatory Death Penalty: Woodson v. North Carolina 5. Mitigating Evidence: Lockett v. Ohio, Jurek v. Texas, Note on Penry and later Texas cases6. Racial Bias: McCleskey v. Kemp Section II: Death-Eligible Crimes and Persons7. Rape: Coker v. Georgia8. Murder: Godfrey v. Georgia 9. Felony-Murder: Enmund v. Florida, Tison v. Arizona10. The Mentally Retarded and Juveniles: Atkins v. Virginia, Roper v. Simmons11. Child Rape: Kennedy v. LouisianaSection III: The Death Penalty Trial12. Appropriate Decisionmakers: Spaziano v. Florida, Ring v. Arizona13. Selecting Jurors: Witherspoon v. Illinois, Turner v. Murray, Uttecht v. Brown14. Victim Impact Evidence: Payne v. Tennessee15. The Sentencing Decision: McKoy v. North Carolina, Kansas v. MarshSection IV: Post-Conviction Review16. Ineffective Counsel: Strickland v. Washington, Williams v. Taylor17. Claims of Innocence: Herrera v. Collins, Kansas v. MarshSection V: Execution Issues18. Mental Illness at Execution: Ford v. Wainwright, Panetti v. Quarterman19. Method of Execution: Baze v. ReesAppendixA. Facts and Figures on Murder and the Death PenaltyB. Selected Death Penalty Statutes