Special Issue of NCSC's Justice System Journal Examines Capital Punishment

Williamsburg, VA (October 31, 2008) – “Court-Related Aspects of Capital Punishment” is the theme of a special issue of the National Center for State Courts’ Justice System Journal (vol. 29, no. 3).  This issue brings together social-science researchers and attorneys engaged in the practice of capital law to examine how capital-punishment cases affect not only court operations, but also participants.  Articles are grouped into four different topics: 

• The Law and the Courts
• Lawyers
• Jurors
• Efforts at System Reform

The perspectives of this special issue’s contributors bring into focus a number of crucial issues and questions.

The issue begins with an overview of the U.S. Supreme Court’s modern death penalty jurisprudence.  The remaining articles address important facets of death penalty jurisprudence at the federal and state levels, with topics ranging from habeas corpus and collateral review to archiving of capital-case records to the reactions of prosecutors and defense attorneys in capital-case reversals.  Other important topics include processing time in capital appeals; race, prosecution, and juries in death penalty cases in Tennessee; stress and capital juries; and efforts to reform capital punishment in New Jersey and Illinois.

The Justice System Journal is published three times each year by the National Center for State Courts and is dedicated to the latest scholarship in the field of judicial administration, broadly understood.  A single copy of the special issue on “Court-Related Aspects of Capital Punishment” costs $13.00; one-year subscriptions to Justice System Journal are $40.00.  To order or subscribe, please contact NCSC’s fulfillment distributor at (888) 228-6272 (toll free) or (802) 862-0095; fax (802) 864-7626; or e-mail ncsc.orders@aidcvt.com.