Entries tagged with “John Bessler”
Facts & Research
History of the Death Penalty
,Feb 20, 2017
BOOKS: “The Death Penalty As Torture: From the Dark Ages to Abolition”
In his newest book, The Death Penalty As Torture: From the Dark Ages to Abolition, John Bessler chronicles the historical link between torture and the death penalty from the Middle Ages to the present day and argues that both are medieval relics. The book, released on February 17, 2017, asserts that capital punishment is itself a form of torture, despite modern legal distinctions that outlaw torture while permitting death sentences and…
Policy Issues
Human Rights
,Dec 08, 2023
Discussions with DPIC Podcast: Classifying Capital Punishment as Torture with John Bessler
In this month’s episode of Discussions with DPIC, Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with John Bessler (pictured), Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore School of Law. Professor Bessler is the author of several books on the death penalty, including his 2023 book The Death Penalty’s Denial of Fundamental Human Rights: International Law, State Practice, and the Emerging Abolitionist Norm. In his most recent book, Professor Bessler argues that the death penalty…
Policy Issues
International
,Apr 19, 2018
Professor John Bessler Traces Italian Philosopher’s Abolitionist Legacy in New Book and Article
In 1764, Italian philosopher Cesare Beccaria wrote the treatise, Dei delitti e delle pene, which author John Bessler (pictured) says spawned global movements for fair and proportional punishment and against practices such as torture and the death penalty. Beccaria’s book was a best-seller that swept across Europe and, translated into English in 1767 as An Essay on Crimes and Punishments, into the American colonies, shaping the beliefs of…
Policy Issues
Human Rights
,International
,May 09, 2023
SCHOLARSHIP: Is the Death Penalty Torture Under International Law?
In an article for the University of Oxford Death Penalty Research Unit, Professor John Bessler discusses whether the use of the death penalty should be classified as torture under the norms of international law. Bessler argues that since psychological torture is prohibited under the most fundamental principles of international law (jus cogens norms) and since death threats are a form of psychological torture, then governmental death threats as part of the death penalty are torturous…