(Winner: Silver Medal in the U.S. History cat­e­go­ry in the Independent Publisher Book Awards). A new book by Professor John D. Bessler, titled Cruel and Unusual: The American Death Penalty and the Founders’ Eighth Amendment, chal­lenges the con­ven­tion­al wis­dom that the coun­try’s founders were avid death penal­ty sup­port­ers, and explores their var­i­ous views on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Prof. Bessler dis­cuss­es how the indis­crim­i­nate use of exe­cu­tions gave way to a more enlight­ened approach that has been evolv­ing ever since. He sheds new light on the Constitution’s ​“cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ments” clause by explor­ing the ear­ly influ­ence of Cesare Beccaria’s essay, On Crimes and Punishments. Bessler exam­ines the Supreme Court’s Eighth Amendment case law and con­cludes that the death penal­ty may well be declared uncon­sti­tu­tion­al in time. Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking, called the book, ​“A sear­ing indict­ment of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, this pio­neer­ing his­to­ry of the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause is des­tined to reframe America’s death penal­ty debate. As a defin­i­tive account of the Eighth Amendment’s ori­gins and the Founding Fathers’ own ambiva­lent views on exe­cu­tions, it will for­ev­er change our per­cep­tions of cru­el­ty and penal reform in the founding era.” 

John Bessler is an asso­ciate pro­fes­sor at the University of Baltimore School of Law and an adjunct pro­fes­sor at the Georgetown University Law Center.

(J. Bessler, ​“Cruel and Unusual: The American Death Penalty and the Founders’ Eighth Amendment,” Northeastern University Press, 2012; post­ed Feb. 7, 2012). See U.S. Supreme Court. Read more Books about the death penalty.

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