The highly acclaimed resource on the death penalty — “America’s Experiment with Capital Punishment” — has just been released in its Third Edition. This compendium of essays by experts covers the history, politics, and law of the death penalty, as well as related issues, such as innocence, intellectual disability, and race. DPIC’s Executive Director, Richard Dieter, contributed a chapter on the costs of the death penalty. The editors encourage readers to grapple with the many questions surrounding capital punishment, saying, “Today, more than 40 years after the death penalty came to an abrupt but temporary halt with the Supreme Court’s ruling in Furman v. Georgia (1972), a host of fundamental questions involving law, social policy, and essential justice remain unanswered about America’s renewed commitment to capital punishment.” This edition includes a particular focus on lethal injection and trends in the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the nation’s “evolving standards of decency.”
