Benjamin S. Yost is Professor of Philosophy, Adjunct at Cornell University.

Yost...has written a brilliant analysis of philosophical arguments for and against the death penalty. Surveying hundreds of scholarly articles and works about capital punishment, the author carefully documents the inadequacies of pro-death penalty reasoning used by philosophers from Immanuel Kant to the present. Yost covers political theories, philosophical arguments, and legal justifications, surveying issues such as deterrence, irrevocability, cost/benefit balance, inadequacy of attorneys, and the inherent fallibility of the American criminal justice system. Most important, he identifies a serious paradigm shift toward abolition of the death penalty...This is a seminal, comprehensive treatment of the capital punishment...Essential.

• IntroductionChapter One: Death and RetributionChapter Two: The Necessity of ExecutionChapter Three: The Irrevocability of ExecutionChapter Four: The Argument for AbolitionChapter Five: The Prospects of the New ProceduralismReferences

Benjamin S. Yost is Professor of Philosophy, Adjunct at Cornell University.

Yost...has written a brilliant analysis of philosophical arguments for and against the death penalty. Surveying hundreds of scholarly articles and works about capital punishment, the author carefully documents the inadequacies of pro-death penalty reasoning used by philosophers from Immanuel Kant to the present. Yost covers political theories, philosophical arguments, and legal justifications, surveying issues such as deterrence, irrevocability, cost/benefit balance, inadequacy of attorneys, and the inherent fallibility of the American criminal justice system. Most important, he identifies a serious paradigm shift toward abolition of the death penalty...This is a seminal, comprehensive treatment of the capital punishment...Essential.

• IntroductionChapter One: Death and RetributionChapter Two: The Necessity of ExecutionChapter Three: The Irrevocability of ExecutionChapter Four: The Argument for AbolitionChapter Five: The Prospects of the New ProceduralismReferences

Benjamin S. Yost is Professor of Philosophy, Adjunct at Cornell University.

Yost...has written a brilliant analysis of philosophical arguments for and against the death penalty. Surveying hundreds of scholarly articles and works about capital punishment, the author carefully documents the inadequacies of pro-death penalty reasoning used by philosophers from Immanuel Kant to the present. Yost covers political theories, philosophical arguments, and legal justifications, surveying issues such as deterrence, irrevocability, cost/benefit balance, inadequacy of attorneys, and the inherent fallibility of the American criminal justice system. Most important, he identifies a serious paradigm shift toward abolition of the death penalty...This is a seminal, comprehensive treatment of the capital punishment...Essential.

• IntroductionChapter One: Death and RetributionChapter Two: The Necessity of ExecutionChapter Three: The Irrevocability of ExecutionChapter Four: The Argument for AbolitionChapter Five: The Prospects of the New ProceduralismReferences