Non-Internet Resource

The book I chose to use for my non-internet resource was "Death Penalty Cases: Leading U.S. Supreme Court Cases on capital Punishment," by Barry Latzer. In this book 22 of the most popular death penalty cases are explicitly explained in great detail as well as the authors opinion on each case. The part of this book that stood out to me the most was the second chapter entitled "Cruel and Unusual as Applied." In this chapter the case of Furman v. Georgia (1972) is discussed about young men who are accused and convicted of rape and sentenced to death. Justice Douglas states that "the use of such punishment is cruel and unusual when used in this manner." Not only did Justice Douglas feel this way but this feeling seemed to be common amongst the justices. Justice Brennan stated that "punishment was cruel and unusual if it was unusually severe such as death or if there was a strong probability that it was inflicted arbitrarily which most cases were." Many of the cases throughout this book relate closely with the topic I have chosen to research due to the manner of which the death penalty is being used. Innocent people are being wrongly accused and convicted and sentenced to life for a crime they did not commit. I was able to read this book quite quickly due to the interesting cases and facts that it presented. It was slightly hard to read and understand as to the language that was being used is a bit more advanced in the law and justice field, but I was able to understand the broad concepts that were trying to be portrayed. This book caused me to think quite a bit and some questions that came to my mind when reading it were just how many innocent individuals are wrongly put to death each year, and how many if any at all states have recently banned the use of the death penalty in their state? It seems to me that a majority of states are still using the death penalty regularly but still so many are against it and innocent people are dying for no reason still today.