Death Penalty: Jurisprudential Controversies and Challenges Arising from the Practice of Capital Punishment in America
Spring term, Block L
T,W 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM
Visiting Associate Professor Daniel R. Williams
3 classroom credits LAW-34155A
Optional clinical credits LAW-34155C (2 Winter + 2 or 3 Spring)
This course investigates the complex jurisprudence of capital punishment in the United States, with heavy emphasis on the constitutional challenges, limits and premises to using the death penalty as a criminal justice tool (including issues of federalism), and some emphasis on the litigation challenges confronting death-penalty lawyers (including issues surrounding death-row incarceration). The course will explore, among other things, the following doctrinal issues: the meaning of "cruel and unusual punishment"; the procedural mechanisms for deciding who lives and who dies, especially the role of aggravating and mitigating factors in guiding the jury's decision; the challenges to the arbitrary and racially discriminatory application of the death penalty; the categorical ban against capital punishment for juvenile offenders and persons with mental retardation; the limits on the exclusion and inclusion of jurors in capital trials; the legal challenges to lethal injection; and the scope of federal habeas review of death sentences. Philosophical, cultural, and historical issues will figure prominently in the readings and class discussions alongside the jurisprudential and litigation considerations anchoring the course.
Up to 12 students may participate in the clinical component, which will require clinical work in the Winter and Spring semesters. Clinical grading is pass/fail. Students who would like to participate in the clinical component must enroll through clinical registration. Please refer to the Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs website at http://www.law.harvard.edu/academics/clinical for clinical course registration dates, drop/add deadlines, and other clinical registration information.