Abstract
The American death penalty must be abolished in order to establish a more just system of punishment. This thesis examines the arguments of eight political theorists and their connections with five essential Supreme Court cases on capital punishment in order to determine the Court's theoretical view of the American death penalty. This theoretical view is that justices who affirm the constitutionality of capital punishment use philosophical theories, while justices who critique capital punishment rely upon context-dependent analyses. If the Court ever rules that capital punishment is unconstitutional in all circumstances, these latter theories will be dispositive.
Advisor
Weaver, Mark
Department
Political Science
Recommended Citation
Sullivan, Rachel S., "Evolving Standards of Decency: The Intersection of Death Penalty Theory and Supreme Court Jurisprudence" (2016). Senior Independent Study Theses. Paper 7064.
https://openworks.wooster.edu/independentstudy/7064
Disciplines
Constitutional Law | Political Theory
Keywords
death penalty, capital punishment, political theory, foucault, nietzsche, supreme court
Publication Date
2016
Degree Granted
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type
Senior Independent Study Thesis Exemplar
Included in
© Copyright 2016 Rachel S. Sullivan