History of the Death Penalty

A new book, No Winners Here Tonight: Race, Politics, and Geography in One of the Country’s Busiest Death Penalty States, by Ohio journalist Andrew Welsh-Huggins, explores the history of Ohio's death penalty and raises questions of fairness by examining the state's experience with capital punishment. Citing historical examples, the author argues that the death penalty has been carried out in an arbitrary fashion from its earliest days and has fallen short of the state’s standard of executing only the “worst of the worst." This book is the first comprehensive study of the history of the death penalty in Ohio.  (The state has about 188 people on death row and has carried out 28 executions since the death penalty was reinstated in the 1970s.  In 2008, Ohio was the only state outside the south to carry out an execution.)

“The Death Penalty: America’s Experience with Capital Punishment” by Professors Raymond Paternoster, Robert Brame, and Sarah Bacon is a comprehensive review of the death penalty in the U.S. Issues covered include the history of the death penalty in America and the changing nature of the U.S. death penalty, including such topics as eligible crimes, trial procedures, and methods of execution. In addition, the book covers questions about the influence of race on the death penalty, the execution of innocent persons, death row exonerations, and flaws in the death penalty system.