DPIC is proud to present its lat­est pod­cast, fea­tur­ing award-win­ning author John Bessler dis­cussing the his­tor­i­cal roots of the death penal­ty and the cur­rent prob­lem of arbi­trari­ness in its appli­ca­tion. Bessler is a law pro­fes­sor at the University of Baltimore School of Law and author of Cruel and Unusual: The American Death Penalty and the Founders’ Eighth Amendment. Prof. Bessler shares his exper­tise on the sur­pris­ing resis­tance to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment among some of the nation’s founders and explores major Supreme Court deci­sions on this issue. He explains why the death penal­ty is open to con­sti­tu­tion­al chal­lenge because its appli­ca­tion is influ­enced by race, geog­ra­phy, and qual­i­ty of rep­re­sen­ta­tion. Click here to lis­ten to the pod­cast or down­load it for future use. 

DPIC’s pod­casts offer con­cise, infor­ma­tive dis­cus­sions of impor­tant death penal­ty issues, suit­able for edu­ca­tion­al use. Other recent episodes include the sto­ry of Larry Smith, an Alabama death row inmate who was freed, and a dis­cus­sion in Spanish about the death penal­ty. You can receive new episodes and access pre­vi­ous episodes through iTunes. Other audio and video resources, along with all of DPIC’s pod­casts, can be found on our Multimedia page. Most of our pod­casts are also avail­able on our iPhone or iPad App.

(Arbitrariness and the Constitution,” DPIC pod­cast, post­ed Mar. 1, 2013). See also Arbitrariness.

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