Murder and the Death Penalty in Massachusetts by Alan Rogers explores the unique his­to­ry of the cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in Massachusetts. Rogers chron­i­cles the more than 300 years that Massachusetts exe­cut­ed men and women in the state through to the even­tu­al abo­li­tion of the pun­ish­ment in 1984. The his­tor­i­cal approach recounts the Puritans’ views on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the 1700’s, the 1830’s House vote that almost abol­ished the death penal­ty, and the cas­es that were the turn­ing point for the state. 

A sam­ple of reviews of this book:

​“The range and depth of cov­er­age are impressive…The twelve chap­ters address key aspects of jurispru­dence, such as defen­dant rights, the insan­i­ty issue, the right to an attor­ney, crim­i­nal dis­cov­ery, con­fes­sion, and the selec­tion of an impar­tial jury…This is mas­ter­ful schol­ar­ship on an immense­ly impor­tant sub­ject.” Lawrence Goodheart, author of Mad Yankees.

​“This book is a per­fect mod­el for any future death penal­ty his­to­ri­an- one can only hope that Rogers’ suc­ces­sors will do for a state such as Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Ohio what he has done for Massachusetts.” Hugo Bedeau, author of The Death Penalty in America.

Murder and the Death Penalty in Massachusetts (University of Massachusetts Press, 2008) can be pur­chased here. See also Books.

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