Voices of the Death Penalty Debate: A Citizen's Guide to Capital Punishment

VOICES OF THE DEATH PENALTY DEBATE is a deliberately different book. It seeks to educate a national and international citizenry about capital punishment through testimony at the historic 2004 and 2005 Hearings on whether the death penalty should be reinstated in New York State. VOICES presents arguments on both sides of this issue from experts, ordinary citizens, victims, organizations, religious leaders, and the exonerated. An explanatory narrative by the author accompanies this testimony. Topics include death penalty facts and figures, constitutional limitations, justifications for capital punishment, costs, the prosecutorial process, race, mental illness, executing the innocent, and the international perspective. Russell G. Murphy is Professor of Law at Suffolk University Law School in Boston, Massachusetts. During his 37 year career as legal teacher, law school administrator, and scholar, he has published numerous articles on such diverse subjects as international human rights, the rights of criminal defendants, the admiralty law of treasure hunting, punitive damages, and capital punishment. Professor Murphy was a witness at the New York Hearings. VOICES is based on his decade-long work on the subject of capital punishment and honors the memory of murder victim Jill Russell Cahill, whose story was central to the New York Hearings.