The Execution of the Innocent

Radelet and Bedau discuss the continuing and regular incidence of American trial courts sentencing innocent defendants to death, which was one of the problems that gave rise to the ABA\u27s moratorium on capital punishment

A Retributive Theory of the Pardoning Power?

During the past two decades; the retributive theory of punishment has made remarkable strides in recapturing the affections of penologists. The story has been told elsewhere and need not be reviewed here. For philosophers, if not for others interested in the theory and practice of punishment, a retributive approach holds a double attraction

The Precarious Sovereignty of Rights

This paper argues that the typical theory of human rights is both defective and misleading. It is misleading insofar as the rights that these theories generate are not the powerful moral swords and shields that their advocates take them to be. It is defective insofar as it fails to confront the chief sources of trouble for theories of rights. In sum, rights do not have the finality in human affairs that is often claimed for them

The philosophical doctrines in Tertullian's De Anima.

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston UniversityThis thesis is an attempt to examine the treatise De Anima written by Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus circa A. D. 210. Special attention is paid to the sources for his doctrines, both Christian and non-Christian, as well as the influences this treatise had on later medieval thought. The systematic presentation of Tertullian's views is not construed to mean that Tertullian produced a really systematic philosophy in De Anima. One thread runs continuously through the thesis, namely, the problem of faith and intellect, revelation and reason, which occurs in every context and influences the actual philosophical positions adopted by Tertullian. [TRUNCATED

Felony Murder and Capital Punishment: an Examination of the Deterrence Question

A proper test of the deterrent effect of the death penalty must consider capital homicides. However, the criterion variable in most investigations has been total homicides—most of which bear no legal or theoretical relationship to capital punishment. To address this fundamental data problem, this investigation used Federal Bureau of Investigation data for 1976–1987 to examine the relationship between capital punishment and felony murder, the most common type of capital homicide. We conducted time series analyses of monthly felony murder rates, the frequency of executions, and the amount and type of television coverage of executions over the period. The analyses revealed occasional departures (for vehicle theft and narcotics killings) from the null hypotheses. However, on balance, and in line with the vast majority of capital punishment studies, this investigation found no consistent evidence that executions and the television coverage they receive are associated significantly with rates for total, index, or different types of felony murder