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While most western democracies have renounced the death penalty, capital punishment enjoys vast and growing support in the United States. A significant and vocal minority, however, continues to oppose it. Against Capital Punishment is the first full account of anti-death penalty activism in America during the years since the ten-year moratorium on executions ended.Building on in-depth interviews with movement leaders and the records of key abolitionist organizations, this work traces the struggle against the pro-death penalty backlash that has steadily gained momentum since the 1970s. It reviews the conservative turn in the courts which, over the last two decades, has forced death penalty opponents to rely less on the litigation strategies that once served them well. It describes their efforts to mount a broad-based educational and political assault on what they see as the most cruel, racist, ineffective, and expensive manifestation of a criminal justice system gone wrong.Despite the efforts of death-penalty opponents, executions in the United States are on the increase. Against Capital Punishment diagnoses the reasons for the failure to mobilize widespread opposition to executions, and assesses the prospects for opposition to capital punishment in the future of the United States.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Introduction: Death Penalty Abolitionism in America(p. 3)
• Historical Cycles of American Abolitionism(p. 7)
• Death Penalty Abolitionism and Modern Social Movements(p. 16)
• Analytical Framework(p. 19)
• 1. The Fall and Rise of Capital Punishment: 1965-1976(p. 23)
• The Road to Furman: 1965-1972(p. 23)
• The Struggle Against Restoration: 1972-1976(p. 45)
• Gregg and Woodson(p. 52)
• 2. The Return of the Executioner: 1976-1982(p. 55)
• Refining the Death Penalty Process(p. 55)
• "Let's Do It": Gary Gilmore and the Return of Executions in America(p. 57)
• The Slow Reawakening of Abolitionism(p. 59)
• Out of the Courtroom: 1976-1982(p. 69)
• Summary(p. 71)
• 3. The Reemergence of Political Abolitionism(p. 73)
• "Deregulating Death": 1983-1994(p. 74)
• Organizational Growth After 1983(p. 79)
• Reframing the Death Penalty(p. 83)
• The Struggle to Diversify(p. 102)
• 4. Framing Disputes in the Movement Against Capital Punishment(p. 117)
• Litigators and Abolitionists: Who Calls the Shots?(p. 118)
• "Humanizing the Convict"(p. 122)
• Direct Action and Civil Disobedience(p. 130)
• The Alternatives Minefield(p. 135)
• Coalition Work and the Broader Context of Abolition(p. 143)
• 5. Abolitionism at the Crossroads(p. 148)
• Resources in the Struggle Against Capital Punishment(p. 149)
• "... The Worst of Times": Political Opportunity and Abolitionism(p. 161)
• Framing the Death Penalty(p. 162)
• 6. Reframing Capital Punishment: Pragmatic Abolitionism(p. 167)
• The Costs of Capital Punishment Systems(p. 169)
• The Ineffectiveness of Capital Punishment(p. 173)
• The "Abolition Dividend" and Realistic Crime Control(p. 177)
• Prospects for the Future(p. 193)
• Afterword--Spring, 1999(p. 197)
• Notes(p. 209)
• References(p. 233)
• Index(p. 251)

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Herbert H. Haines is Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York at Cortland