A new book by Professor Robert Bohm of the University of Central Florida examines the personal impact of capital punishment on those involved in the criminal justice system, beyond the victim and perpetrator of the crime. Bohm listened to those involved in all steps of the judicial process, including investigators, jurors, and the execution team. He has probed the effects of the death penalty on the families of both the murder victim and the offender. The book, Capital Punishment’s Collateral Damage, includes testimonials from members of each group, “allowing the participants…to describe in their own words their role in the process and, especially, its effects on them.” Bohm concludes that this “collateral damage is another good argument for rethinking the wisdom of the ultimate sanction.”

(R. Bohm, “Capital Punishment’s Collateral Damage,” Carolina Academic Press (2013), posted January 22, 2013. This is an updated version of Ultimate Sanction: Understanding the Death Penalty Through Its Many Voices and Many Sides (2010), also by Bohm.) See Books on the death penalty and Victims.

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