Bringing together the major death penalty cases decided by the U.S. Supreme Court and the legal issues related to the death penalty, this text classifies the cases according to legal issues, provides commentary on the general case law, provides a chart of the cases discussed, and then presents the legal materials in an understandable, easy-to-digest case brief format.

Author Biography

Rolando V. del Carmen retired at the end of May 2012 as Distinguished Professor and Regents' Professor, College of Criminal Justice, Sam Houston State University. Although retired, he continues to teach a graduate seminar in law to Ph.D. students during the fall semester. He holds several law degrees from the Philippines and the United States. Scott Vollum is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology-Anthropology at the University of Minnesota Duluth where he primarily teaches classes on violence, the death penalty, restorative justice, criminological theory, and research methods. Durant Frantzen is currently an assistant professor of Criminology at Texas A&M University-San Antonio. Claudia San Miguel is an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice within the Department of Public Affairs and Social Research at Texas A&M International University in Laredo, Texas.