Degree Year
2014
Document Type
Thesis - Open Access
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Politics
Advisor(s)
Harry Hirsch
Keywords
Capital punishment, Supreme Court, Jurisprudence, Furman v. Georgia, Gregg v. Georgia, Death penalty
Abstract
In the 1970s and 1980s, the Supreme Court decided three landmark cases on death penalty laws in the United States. While adjudicating these cases, the Court sought to address one of the central questions regarding capital punishment: can it be applied fairly? My paper attempts to understand how the Court found an answer to this question. I employ complementary frameworks of constitutional interpretation, formalism, and realism to suggest that the Court's focus on judicial restraint and its weak understanding of race and discrimination led it to conclude that capital punishment can be applied "fairly enough" for our constitutional system.
Repository Citation
Braslaw, Truman, "An Arbitrary Death? Capital Punishment and the Supreme Court" (2014). Honors Papers. 279.
https://digitalcommons.oberlin.edu/honors/279
