ABSTRACT
This chapter will focus on the death penalty, the most extreme criminal penalty in the United States. As a criminal punishment, the death penalty is analyzed pursuant to the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution. This chapter will discuss the language of the Eighth Amendment as applied to the death penalty and the history of capital punishment under American jurisprudence. We will review the empirical evidence regarding problems with the death penalty pertaining to arbitrariness in the implementation of the death penalty, racial disparities regarding which victims result in capital charges, a retreat from “evolving standards of decency”, and the risk of executing innocent human beings. Our chapter will further discuss ongoing concerns and broad evidence-based solutions to these problems. Our research into the state of America’s death penalty jurisprudence leads us to the conclusion that abolishment or “disciplined-retention” is the proper way to address capital punishment in America.
