* Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, George Mason University
School of Law. For helpful comments, the author thanks Lloyd Cohen, Steven Eagle, Bruce …

" Death is different" has long been the mantra of capital defense attorneys. Some variant of
that expression appears in many of the US Supreme Court's landmark decisions,'and it …

Conventional wisdom notes persistent regional differences in the application of the death
penalty, with southern states' appetite for capital punishment exceeding that of non-southem …

In Edgar Allen Poe's short story" The Cask of Amontillado," Montresor takes revenge on his
enemy Fortunato. 2 He leads the intoxicated Fortunato deep into the catacombs under the …

The rate of incarceration in the United States has reached epidemic proportions. 2 While this
fact is well known, the comparators still have the power to shock: there are" more African …

In the wake of the United States Supreme Court's 1972 decision in Furman v. Georgia,'many,
including even then sitting members of the Supreme Court, believed that the death penalty …

William Henry Furman was twenty-nine years old when he was convicted for the murder of
William Joseph Micke, Jr., on September 20, 1968.1 After a trial lasting a single day, the jury …

Today, states are moving closer to another moment of critical decision-making in charting
the course of the death penalty in the United States. Unlike the sudden and dramatic …

This dissertation offers a critical inspection of contemporary American punishment by
focusing on one of its singular features: life imprisonment without the possibility of parole …

The studies conducted by the Commission are authorized by statute or by a simple or joint
resolution. In general, the Commission has the power to conduct investigations, study …