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Interesting account of "Five myths about the death penalty"

By Douglas A. Berman

NYU Professor David Garland has this intriguing piece in today's Washington Post under the headline "Five myths about the death penalty." Here is how the Post's editors set up the piece and the five myths set out by Garland: The death penalty: the punishment we reserve for the worst criminal offenders.  Last week, law enforcement officials said it was on the table for four men charged in the shooting deaths of unarmed civilians in New Orleans in the days after Hurricane Katrina.  It's a signal that the crimes were truly reprehensible.  Much of what we think we know about American capital punishment comes from the longstanding debate that surrounds the institution. But in making their opposing claims, death-penalty proponents and their abolitionist adversaries perpetrate myths and half-truths that distort the facts...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on July 18, 2010 (boomark / email).