Death Penalty

Prof Carolyn Hoyle 

This course provides students with a good understanding of the scope and practice of capital punishment and the movement - backed by international organizations and human rights treaties - to abolish the death penalty worldwide. Students will learn about the extent to which defendants in capital cases are protected by due process and have access to qualified defence counsel, and where they lack protection from police abuse, unfair trials, and painful forms of execution. They will explore what happens when due process safeguards fail, and innocent people are convicted and sentenced to death. Further, they will consider whether capital punishment can ever be administered equitably, without discrimination on grounds of race, geography, gender or other non-legal variables. Throughout this course students will draw on recent and controversial cases and decisions, as well as the social scientific literature.