In The Top Ten Death Penalty Myths, pro­fes­sors Rudolph J. Gerber and John M. Johnson explore ten argu­ments used to sup­port the death penal­ty and pro­vide read­ers with cur­rent research and stud­ies chal­leng­ing these argu­ments. The authors show how ​“polit­i­cal and com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers have used myth and emo­tion­al appeals to mis­rep­re­sent the facts about cap­i­tal exe­cu­tions.” Each chap­ter begins with a state­ment in sup­port of the death penal­ty based on themes such as deter­rence, vic­tims and their fam­i­lies, and costs, and then ana­lyzes the orig­i­nal state­ment, offer­ing research to counter it.

(The Top Ten Death Penalty Myths: The Politics of Crime Control by Rudolph J. Gerber and John M. Johnson (Praeger Publishing 2007)). Prof. Gerber is a for­mer judge on the Arizona Court of Appeals. See also Books.

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