How Ethical Systems Change: Lynching and Capital Punishment

Sheldon Ekland-Olson joined The University of Texas at Austin after completing his graduate work at the University of Washington in Seattle and Yale Law School. He is currently the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Centennial Professor of Liberal Arts. He served for five years as Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and then for eight years as Executive Vice President and Provost of the university. He has authored or co-authored several books and numerous articles on criminal justice, prison reform, and capital punishment. Widely recognized for his commitment to teaching undergraduates, he is the recipient of numerous teaching awards. His current interests are reflected in the book manuscript, Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Decides? Danielle Dirks is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Occidental College in Los Angeles, California. She completed her doctoral work at The University of Texas at Austin, with a focus on American capital punishment and the rise of "closure" as a death penalty rationale in the post-Furman era. Her scholarly interests include crime, law, and deviance and racial and ethnic relations in the United States.

1. What Lies Ahead 2. Removing the Protective Boundaries of Life 3. A Campaign to Stop Executions 4. The Pendulum Swings, the Debate Continues