Cruel and Unusual Punishment
Subtitle: Rights and Liberties under the Law (America's Freedoms)
Contributors: Donald Stephenson (Editor)
Publisher: ABC-CLIO; ABC-CLIO, Inc.
Published: February 21, 2003
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 376
ISBN-13: 9781576076026
Subjects: Constitution: government & the state; Constitutional & administrative law; Human rights; Jurisprudence & philosophy of law; Penology & punishment; History; Legal Reference / Law Profession; History: World; USA; Constitutional; Criminal Law; Criminal Law - General; Law / General; General; Reference; Capital punishment; United States
Description: In one of the lengthiest, noisiest, and hottest legal debates in U.S. history, Cruel and Unusual Punishment stands out as a levelheaded, even handed, and thorough analysis of the issue. Melusky and Pesto, who are not identified, discuss the theoretical and historical evolution of constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment in the US. They analyze issues and present excerpts from relevant documents and court decisions, public opinion survey results, statistical data, and a few secondary sources. Readers are not assumed to have any background in law. Offers students a complex, even handed understanding of one of the nation's most polarized legal debates, and raw materials with which to formulate their own opinions, excerpts from landmark decisions and federal sentencing guidelines and data from state statistics and public opinion polls.