Deadly Justice

In 1976, the US Supreme Court ruled in Gregg v. Georgia that the death penalty was constitutional if it complied with certain specific provisions designed to ensure that it was reserved for the 'worst of the worst.' The same court had rejected the death penalty just four years before in the Furman decision because it found that the penalty had been applied in a capricious and arbitrary manner. The 1976 decision ushered in the 'modern' period of the US death penalty, setting the country on a course to execute over 1,400 inmates in the ensuing years, with over 8,000 individuals currently sentenced to die.

Now, forty years after the decision, the eminent political scientist Frank Baumgartner along with a team of younger scholars (Marty Davidson, Kaneesha Johnson, Arvind Krishnamurthy, and Colin Wilson) have collaborated to assess the empirical record and provide a definitive account of how the death penalty has been implemented. Each chapter addresses a precise empirical question and provides evidence, not opinion, about whether how the modern death penalty has functioned. They decided to write the book after Justice Breyer issued a dissent in a 2015 death penalty case in which he asked for a full briefing on the constitutionality of the death penalty. In particular, they assess the extent to which the modern death penalty has met the aspirations of Gregg or continues to suffer from the flaws that caused its rejection in Furman. To answer this question, they provide the most comprehensive statistical account yet of the workings of the capital punishment system. Authoritative and pithy, the book is intended for both students in a wide variety of fields, researchers studying the topic, and--not least--the Supreme Court itself.


Baumgartner et al. question whether the death penalty as it is practiced today meets the standards for constitutional legitimacy imposed in Furman. Baumgartner et al. address every empirical issue relevant to that question, ranging from the process by which capital punishment is meted out in jurisdictions, to which crimes in which jurisdictions merit the death penalty, to how often persons are exonerated from death row. They also provide extensive statistical evidence of differences in execution rates according to race and gender, and consider the evidence of whether the death penalty deters crime. This excellent volume is essential reading for anyone interested in the constitutionality of the death penalty. -- CHOICE

Overall, the work contains much good information and some valuable insights. I was especially intrigued with the way the authors framed the difference between Furman and Gregg. They noted that in the former case the Court ruled based on plentiful evidence and experience with how the system actually worked. In Gregg, they were ruling prospectively-based on untested proposals about how the system might be improved. One decision was based on empirical evidence; the other on theory. Baumgartner, et. al. have given us some useful tools to measure the success of that theory. - Mary Welek Atwell, Professor Emerita of Criminal Justice, Radford University