“Capital
Punishment” by George Bernard Shaw. The Atlantic Monthly, June 1948.
Shaw was a British playwright who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1935.
“Capital
Punishment: Life or Death?”University of Texas at Austin, Rhetoric and
Composition class.
A class project that explores the pros and cons of the death penalty, and such concepts as
Lex Talionis (a life for a life).
“An
Essay on Crimes and Punishments” by Cesare Beccaria (1764). Excerpts. Fordham
University Internet Modern History Sourcebook.
Beccaria was an Italian Enlightenment philosopher who influenced many early American
thinkers.
“Is
the Death Penalty Necessary?” by Giles Playfair. The Atlantic Monthly,
September 1957.
Playfair was a British barrister who studied the penal system of the U.S. and Great
Britain. This is an argument against the death penalty.
“Sentencing:
The Judge’s Problem” by Judge Irving R. Kaufman. The Atlantic Monthly,
January 1960.
Judge of the United States district court for the southern district of New York beginning
in October 1949, Kaufman has been internationally famous since 1950, when he pronounced on
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg the first peacetime death sentences for espionage in the
history of the United States.
“Speech in Favor of
Capital Punishment” by John Stuart Mill. Ethics Updates.
A speech delivered before the English Parliament in 1868, by a philosopher who influenced
the development of U.S. law.
“The Ultimate Punishment: A Defense” by Ernest van den Haag.
Harvard Law Review Association, 1986.
Ernest van den Haag is John M. Olin Professor of Jurisprudence and Public Policy at
Fordham University.
