Criminal Law Lecture Outline - Fall 2008

Criminal Law

Fall 2008

Section 1

Professor Lee

Class Outline

October 1, 2008

THE DEATH PENALTY

1.  The desirability and moral correctness of capital punishment

a.  Retribution

i.  Moral equality of humans/unique appropriateness of jus talionis

 

ii.  If we feel retributive urges, should we want the state to act on them?

 

iii.  "The state should never sanction (revenge) killing"

b.  Deterrence

i.  Common sense

 

ii.  Social science

 

iii.  Is there a "brutalizing effect"?

 

iv.  Who should get the benefit of the doubt?

c.  Incapacitation

i.  The trouble with predicting who will kill again

 

ii.  Life without possibility of parole as the proper point of comparison

d.  The danger of mistake

i.  Who should get the benefit of the doubt?

 

ii.  Are abolitionists taking a long-term risk by emphasizing the possibility of mistake?