Ultimate Sanction:Understanding the Death Penalty Through Its Many Voices and Many Sides

For nearly 250 years, scholars, legal experts, policymakers, and media pundits have discussed and debated the issues surrounding the death penalty. Is it a deterrent? What are the religious and retributive implications? What is the cost to society? Is it a cruel and unusual form of punishment? What impact does it have on the lives of those who, by duty or by choice, are involved in the process?

In this ground-breaking book, Robert Bohm answers these questions by going to the source: people who have been directly and powerfully affected by circumstances surrounding the enforcement of capital punishment. Focusing on several death penalty cases, Bohm assembles voices from all sides—attorneys, law enforcement professionals, families of victims, and perpetrators— in order to present the full range of emotion, opinion, and consequence surrounding capital punishment. In doing so, Bohm provides us with a truly balanced and broad understanding of the effects of capital punishment on the individual and on society as a whole. The Ultimate Sanction is essential reading for anyone interested in the criminal justice system.