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The Death and Resurrection of Capital Punishment in America
W. W. Norton & Company
January 2013
On Sale: January 5, 2013
544 pages ISBN: 0393239586 EAN: 9780393239584 Kindle: B00AV7JV98 Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction History
New York Times Book Review Editor's
Choice
Drawing on never-before-published original
source detail, the epic story of two of the most
consequential, and largely forgotten, moments in Supreme
Court history. For two hundred years, the
constitutionality of capital punishment had been axiomatic.
But in 1962, Justice Arthur Goldberg and his clerk Alan
Dershowitz dared to suggest otherwise, launching an
underfunded band of civil rights attorneys on a quixotic
crusade. In 1972, in a most unlikely victory, the Supreme
Court struck down Georgia’s death penalty law in Furman
v. Georgia. Though the decision had sharply divided the
justices, nearly everyone, including the justices
themselves, believed Furman would mean the end of
executions in America. Instead, states responded with a
swift and decisive showing of support for capital
punishment. As anxiety about crime rose and public approval
of the Supreme Court declined, the stage was set in 1976 for
Gregg v. Georgia, in which the Court dramatically
reversed direction. A Wild Justice is an
extraordinary behind-the-scenes look at the Court, the
justices, and the political complexities of one of the most
racially charged and morally vexing issues of our time.
8 pages of photographs
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