Open AccessZAGADNIENIE KARY ŚMIERCI W STANACh ZJEDNOCZONYCH AMERYKI
Author(s) -
Wojciech Kwiatkowski
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
zeszyty prawnicze
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2353-8139
pISSN - 1643-8183
DOI - 10.21697/zp.2012.12.3.05
Subject(s) - capital punishment , statute , capital (architecture) , law , punishment (psychology) , political science , criminology , law and economics , sociology , psychology , history , social psychology , archaeology
THE ISSUE OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN THE UNITED STATES Summary This article describes the issue of capital punishment in the United States, including the history of the death penalty as administered in the USA and the main court rulings on this matter (e.g. the definition of categories of exemption or restrictions on the methods or conditions of execution). The article also describes numerous efforts (mostly on the grounds of court rulings) to improve the quality of legal representation and enhance the fairness of capital trials and appeals for defendants facing the death penalty. The article concludes with statistics which show that states with capital punishment on the statute book do not generally have lower murder or crime rates and that since 1973 138 persons sentenced to death have been acquitted in outcome of the discovery and proof of miscarriage of justice.