About This Course
The issue of capital punishment has been a persistent and controversial element in the criminal codes of nearly every U.S. state since the nation's founding. This CLE course explores the multifaceted debates surrounding the death penalty, focusing on its fairness, administration, and inherent ethical concerns. Over the past 70 years, the controversy has centered on three primary issues:
- Can the death penalty be administered in a manner consistent with fair and constitutional procedures, regardless of personal beliefs?
- Is the existence of the death penalty inherently unfair?
- Are individual states and judicial circuits administering capital justice equitably?
- Additionally, the course will examine whether the demographics of capital punishment—considering factors such as race, gender, and socioeconomic status—render it so inherently biased that a "fair death penalty" is unattainable. This includes a critical analysis of the racial injustices that may arise despite safeguards.
Moreover, the course will address a less commonly discussed perspective: Does the absence of a death penalty devalue the lives of certain murder victims, particularly those who are Black, female, and poor? This viewpoint suggests that failing to impose the death penalty in such cases may perpetuate racial discrimination by sparing the lives of killers who might otherwise be executed based on their demographic profiles.
