Jamail Center for Legal Research
Tarlton Law Library

Current Capital Punishment Legal Literature

About the “Current Capital Punishment Legal Literature” website: The "Current Capital Punishment Legal Literature" website is a resource for keeping informed about current articles related to capital punishment law. The Law Library staff selects capital punishment articles daily from the U.S. legal journals and non-U.S. legal journals published in English. We then input into this database the basic bibliographic informationand an image of the first page of each article. The image of the article's first page will provide readers with a more complete idea of the scope of each article and the biographical background of the authors. Articles will be added two to three times a week, depending on the volume of cites. This page is RSS-enabled. Subscribe to the RSS feed using a feed reader, or RSS-enabled browser (Firefox, Safari, or IE 7) to receive automatic notices of updates. The RSS feed address is http://web.austin.utexas.edu/law_library/punishment/rss.cfm. The Library provides this service under the “fair use” provision of U.S. copyright law. Only the first page of an article will be scanned, and images will be deleted after 60 days. This service is for non-commercial, educational purposes only. If you have any questions or comments about this service please contact Jane O'Connell, Director of faculty and student services.

Click article title to view a .pdf file of its first page.
Articles are listed in reverse chronological order:

June 29, 2009

Author: Richard Klein Title: An Analysis of the Death Penalty Jurisprudence of the October 2007 Supreme Court Term Citation: 25 Touro Law Review 625 (2009) Author: Katie Morgan and Michael J. Zydney Mannheimer Title: The Impact of Information Overload on the Capital Jury's Ability to Assess Aggravating and Mitigating Factors Citation: 17 William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal 1089 (2009)

June 4, 2009

Author: Katherine Barnes, David Sloss, and Stephen Thaman Title: Place Matters (Most): An Empirical Study of Prosecutorial Decision-Making in Death-Eligible Cases Citation: 51 Arizona Law Review 305 (2009) Author: Justin F. Marceau Title: Lifting the Haze of Baze: Lethal Injection, The Eighth Amendment, and Plurality Opinions Citation: 41 Arizona State Law Journal 159 (2009) Author: Andrew Novak Title: NOTE, Guilty of Murder with Extenuating Circumstances: Transparency and the Mandatory Death Penalty in Botswana Citation: 27 Boston University International Law Journal 173 (2009) Author: Natasha Minsker Title: Prosecutorial Misconduct in Death Penalty Cases Citation: 45 California Western Law Review 373 (2009) Author: Anthony E. Giardino Title: Combat Veterans, Mental Health Issues, and the Death Penalty: Addressing the Impact of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury Citation: 77 Fordham Law Review 2955 (2009) Author: Stephen K. Rice, Danielle Dirks, and Julie J. Exline Title: Of Guilt, Defiance, and Repentance: Evidence from the Texas Death Chamber Citation: 26 Justice Quarterly 295 (2009) Author: Judy Eaton and Anna Theuer Title: Apology and Remorse in the Last Statements of Death Row Prisoners Citation: 26 Justice Quarterly 327 (2009) Author: Robert T. Plunkert Title: COMMENT, The Aryan Brotherhood, Crawford, and the Death Penalty Citation: 53 Saint Louis University Law Journal 663 (2009) Author: Kelly J. Minor Title: NOTE, Prohibiting the Death Penalty for the Rape of a Child While Overlooking Wrongful Execution: Kennedy v. Louisiana Citation: 54 South Dakota Law Review 300 (2009)

May 12, 2009

Author: Anna M. Hagstrom Title: COMMENT, Atkins v. Virginia: An Empty Holding Devoid of Justice for the Mentally Retarded Citation: 27 Law and Inequality 241 (2009) Author: Ryan Florio Title: NOTE, The (Capital) Punishment Fits the Crime: A Comparative Analysis of the Death Penalty and Proportionality in the United States of America and the People's Republic of China Citation: 16 University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review 43 (2009) Author: Kenneth Williams Title: Does Strickland Prejudice Defendants on Death Row? Citation: 43 University of Richmond Law Review 1459 (2009) Author: George W. Conk Title: Herald of Change? New Jersey's Repeal of the Death Penalty Citation: 33 Seton Hall Legislative Journal 21 (2008) Author: Symposium: Legislation, Litigation, Reflection and Repeal: The Legislative Abolition of the Death Penalty in New Jersey Title: Introductory Note Citation: 33 Seton Hall Legislative Journal 1 (2008) Author: John M. Scheb II and Kristin Wagers Title: Racial Discrimination in the Death Penalty in Tennessee: An Empirical Assessment Citation: 5 Tennessee Journal of Law and Policy 9 (2008)

May 4, 2009

Author: Dan Weisman Title: Cruel and Unusual Punishment, "Conformity" Amendments, and the Florida Supreme Court's Review of Death Sentences: A Call for the Abolishment of Comparative Proportionality Review in Florida Citation: 25 Thomas M. Cooley Law Review 177 (2008)

April 27, 2009

Author: Jenna Zerylnick Title: NOTE, Eighth Amendment Challenges to Death Penalty Protocols: How Baze v. Rees Will Engender Future Collateral Attacks on the Death Penalty Citation: 10 Florida Coastal Law Review 349 (2009) Author: Brandi Morgan Title: COMMENT, Panetti v. Quarterman: The Eighth Amendment and the Execution of Incompetent Prisoners Citation: 33 Oklahoma City University Law Review 899 (2008) Author: Joshua Womack Title: COMMENT, Discretionary Death: A Comparative Analysis of Imposing the Death Penalty in the United States and Islamic Republic of Iran Citation: 16 Tulsa Journal of Comparative and International Law 101 (2008) Author: Nita A. Farahany Title: Cruel and Unequal Punishments Citation: 86 Washington University Law Review 859 (2009)

April 20, 2009

Author: Robert Batey Title: Categorical Bars to Execution: Civilizing the Death Penalty Citation: 45 Houston Law Review 1493 (2009) Author: Omar Randi Ebeid Title: COMMENT, Death by Association: Conspiracy Liability and Capital Punishment in Texas Citation: 45 Houston Law Review 1831 (2009)

April 10, 2009

Author: Pramila A. Kamath Title: CASE NOTE, Blinded by the Bright-Line: Problems with Strict Construction of the Criteria for Death Penalty Exemption on the Basis of Mental Retardation -- State v. Strode Citation: 77 University of Cincinnati Law Review 321 (2008) Author: Colman Lynch Title: NOTE, Indonesia's Use of Capital Punishment for Drug-Trafficking Crimes: Legal Obligations, Extralegal Factors, and the Bali Nine Case Citation: 40 Columbia Human Rights Law Review 523 (2009) Author: Courtney Butler Title: COMMENT, Baze v. Rees: Lethal Injection as a Constitutional Method of Execution Citation: 86 Denver University Law Review 509 (2009) Author: Courtney Rachel Baron Title: NOTE, An Eye for an Eye Leaves Everyone Blind: Fields v. Brown and the Case for Keeping the Bible out of Capital Sentencing Deliberations Citation: 103 Northwestern University Law Review 369 (2009)

April 3, 2009

Author: Nadia N. Sawicki Title: Doctors, Discipline, and the Death Penalty: Professional Implications of Safe Harbor Policies Citation: 27 Yale Law and Policy Review 107 (2008)

March 30, 2009

Author: Molly E. Grace Title: NOTE, Baze v. Rees: Merging Eighth Amendment Precedents into a New Standard for Method of Execution Challenges Citation: 68 Maryland Law Review 430 (2009)

March 29, 2009

Author: Greg Tapocsi Title: COMMENT, Three Steps to Death: The Use of the Drug Pavulon in the Lethal Injection Protocol Utilized Today Violates the Eighth Amendment's Protection Against Cruel and Unusual Punishment Citation: 35 Ohio Northern University Law Review 425 (2009) Author: Symposium Title: Cruel and Unusual Punishment: Litigating Under the Eighth Amendment Citation: 11 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law 1 (2008) Author: Stephen B. Bright Title: The Failure to Achieve Fairness: Race and Poverty Continue to Influence Who Dies Citation: 11 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law 23 (2008) Author: Carol S. Steiker and Jordan M. Steiker Title: Opening a Window or Building a Wall? The Effect of Eighth Amendment Death Penalty Law and Advocacy on Criminal Justice More Broadly Citation: 11 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law 155 (2008) Author: Dawinder S. Sidhu Title: On Appeal: Reviewing the Case Against the Death Penalty Citation: 111 West Virginia Law Review 453 (2009)

March 25, 2009

Author: Jeremy B. Sporn Title: COMMENT, Legal Injection? The Constitutionality of the Bible in Capital Sentencing Deliberations Citation: 83 Tulane Law Review 813 (2009)

February 27, 2009

Author: William W. Berry III Title: American Procedural Exceptionalism: A Deterrent or a Catalyst for Death Penalty Abolition? Citation: 17 Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy 481 (2008)

February 20, 2009

Author: Alexa Woodward Title: It Takes a Village to Save a Life: A Statewide Model for Indigent Capital Defense Citation: 11 New York City Law Review 159 (2007)

February 17, 2009

Author: Aya Gruber Title: Sending the Self-Execution Doctrine to the Executioner Citation: 3 FIU Law Review 57 (2007) Author: Chris Koepke Title: NOTE, Panetti v. Quarterman: Exploring the Unsettled and Unsettling Citation: 45 Houston Law Review 1383 (2008) Author: Robert Blecker Title: The Road Not Considered: Revising New Jersey's Death Penalty Statute Citation: 32 Seton Hall Legislative Journal 241 (2008)

February 4, 2009

Author: Monica C. Bell Title: Grassroots Death Sentences?: The Social Movement for Capital Child Rape Laws Citation: 98 Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 1 (2007) Author: Jerry Merrill Title: COMMENT, The Past, Present, and Future of Lethal Injection: Baze v. Rees' Effect on the Death Penalty Citation: 77 UMKC Law Review 161 (2008)

February 3, 2009

Author: Amanda M. Brown Title: CASENOTE, Panetti v. Quarterman: Due Process for Mentally Ill Defendants Facing the Death Penalty Citation: 9 Loyola Journal of Public Interest Law 273 (2008) Author: Russell Stetler Title: The Mystery of Mitigation: What Jurors Need to Make a Reasoned Moral Response in Capital Sentencing Citation: 11 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Law and Social Change 237 (2007-2008) Author: Patrick Mulvaney Title: Crafting the Case Against the American Death Penalty Citation: 11 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Law and Social Change 265 (2007-2008) Author: Amanda Marzullo Title: Last Man Out: People v. Taylor and Its Precursors in New York Death Penalty Jurisprudence Citation: 11 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Law and Social Change 271 (2007-2008) Author: Kevin M. Doyle Title: Lethal Crapshoot: The Fatal Unreliability of the Penalty Phase Citation: 11 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Law and Social Change 275 (2007-2008)

January 27, 2009

Author: Jeffrey L. Kirchmeier Title: Our Existential Death Penalty: Judges, Jurors, and Terror Management Citation: 32 Law and Psychology Review 55 (2008) Author: Rachel Alexandra Rossi Title: Meet Me on Death Row: Post-Sentence Victim-Offender Mediation in Capital Cases Citation: 9 Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal 185 (2008)

January 14, 2009

Author: John Kraemer Title: NOTE, An Empirical Examination of the Factors Associated with the Commutation of State Death Row Prisoners' Sentences Between 1986 and 2005 Citation: 45 American Criminal Law Review 1389 (2008) Author: Peggy M. Tobolowsky Title: To Panetti and Beyond -- Defining and Identifying Capital Offenders Who Are Too "Insane" to be Executed Citation: 34 American Journal of Criminal Law 369 (2007) Author: Samuel R. Gross and Barbara O'Brien Title: Frequency and Predictors of False Conviction: Why We Know So Little, and New Data on Capital Cases Citation: 5 Journal of Empirical Legal Studies 927 (2008) Author: Andrew S. Thompson Title: Beyond Expression: Amnesty International's Decision to Oppose Capital Punishment, 1973 Citation: 7 Journal of Human Rights 327 (2008) Author: Heidi M. Hurd Title: TERM PAPER, Death to Rapists: A Comment on Kennedy v. Louisiana Citation: 6 Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law 351 (2008) Author: Jeremy A. Blumenthal Title: Implicit Theories and Capital Sentencing: An Experimental Study Citation: 59 Syracuse Law Review 1 (2008) Author: Liam J. Montgomery Title: NOTE, The Unrealized Promise of Section 1983 Method-of-Execution Challenges Citation: 94 Virginia Law Review 1987 (2008)