Customer Reviews

Justice Denied: Clemency Appeals in Death Penalty Cases

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Cathleen Burnett has given us a detailed review of the executive clemency process in 50 Missouri death penalty cases mostly during the 1990's. The book is well organized and it presents an excellent model for reviewing the executive clemency process in other states. It's clearly written with a helpful appendix.

38 states and the federal government have a death penalty, and in the last quarter century nearly 800 men and women have been put to death. Since 1992, however, only 18 commutations of sentence have been handed down by 11 states and the federal government in death penalty cases.

The historical importance of executive clemency seems to have been deeply overshadowed in the post-Furman world of the death penalty by political considerations. Long out of print, "Public Justice, Private Mercy - A Governor's Education on Death Row" by Pat Brown is an extraordinary account of executive clemency in California during the 1960's.