For those interested in a little more information about the history of the death penalty in the United States, the Death Penalty Information Center has an effective summary at this link.
Sentencing Class @ OSU Moritz College of Law
A new home for an old class blog
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- Anyone have any distinct views on who Joe Biden should pick as US Attorney General?
- What data in the federal system would indicate the Biden Administration is drawing down the federal drug war?
- A final (too brief) foray into what metrics and data matter for assessing a sentencing system
- Reactions to our look behind the robes with federal sentencing judges?
- Are there any “offender characteristics” that you think must be considered at sentencing? If so, how?
Sentencing Class @ OSU Moritz College of Law 
4 responses to “A bit of death penalty history from DPIC”
This is not directly related to this article, but the New York Times wrote about how several states are considering dropping the death penalty as a way of cutting costs: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/us/25death.html?_r=1&hp
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Thanks, Shawn. I have lots of coverage of this at my “home” blog:
http://sentencing.typepad.com/sentencing_law_and_policy/2009/02/more-discussion-of-cost-concerns-in-debates-over-the-death-penalty.html
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Shawn: The Rent Seeking Theory.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking
It will help you understand most anomalous appellate decisions, and actually predict 70% of decisions. You may think of it as physical, not metaphorical, armed robbery. If you refuse to pay taxes, armed people come around and help you do it. The death penalty appeal process is a good example of rent seeking.
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I found this article today in the dispatch, Here are some actually studies of what it costs Ohio to keep so many prisoners
Jonathan Tewart
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/03/02/aprison.html?sid=101
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