The Death Penalty

Scott Vollum is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology-Anthropology at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, where he primarily teaches classes on violence, the death penalty, restorative justice, criminological theory, and research methods. He conducts research and writes on a variety of topics related to the death penalty, including attitudes about the death penalty and experiences of those impacted by the death penalty (e.g., condemned death row inmates, co-victims of capital murder, and death row exonerees). He also conducts research on and writes about moral disengagement, restorative justice, violence against animals, and crime and justice in popular culture. The late Rolando V. del Carmen was Distinguished Professor of Criminal Justice (Law) in the College of Criminal Justice, Sam Houston State University. He authored numerous books and articles in various areas of law related to criminal justice. He won all three major awards given by the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, taught numerous graduate and undergraduate classes in law, and was a mentor and friend to a great many of his students. Durant Frantzen is Associate Professor of Criminology in the College of Arts and Sciences at Texas A&M University, San Antonio. His research focuses on offender reentry and recidivism, domestic violence policy, and the death penalty. He teaches courses on forensic psychology, statistics, victimology, and comparative systems in criminal justice. Claudia San Miguel is an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice and Chair of the Department of Public Affairs and Social Research at Texas A&M International University in Laredo, Texas. Her research focuses on the trafficking of women and children, dating violence, domestic violence, and various policing issues. She has traveled to England, Poland, Sweden, Austria, and Spain to help form collaborative relationships with their anti-trafficking task forces. She has also taught courses for the Department of State in Roswell, New Mexico, on global human trafficking at the International Law Enforcement Academy. The late Kelly Cheeseman was Associate Professor and Chair of the Criminal Justice Program at Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania. Her research interests included female offenders, prison deviance, correctional officer stress and job satisfaction, institutional corrections, the death penalty, ethics, and sexually deviant behavior.

"Top Ten" Most Significant Death Penalty Cases 1. The Death Penalty: Past and Present 2. The Foundation Cases: Furman v. Georgia and Gregg v. Georgia 3. Racial Discrimination and the Death Penalty 4. The Mentally Impaired and the Death Penalty 5. Death Penalty for Juveniles 6. Juries, Jurors, and the Death Penalty 7. The Right to Effective Assistance of Counsel and the Death Penalty 8. Due Process and the Death Penalty 9. Aggravating and Mitigating Factors in Death Penalty Cases 10. Appeals, Habeas Corpus, and the Death Penalty 11. Evolving Standards of Decency and the Eighth Amendment’s Ban on Cruel and Unusual Punishment 12. Other Issues, Trends, and the Future of the Death Penalty