Tag: Capital Punishment

Topics

Books

Violence, Morality and the Law

– The Intercollegiate Review 9:2 (Spring 1974).
Excerpt: In Political Violence and Civil Disobedience, Ernest van den Haag argues that the problem underlying civil disobedience is the question whether there is ever a moral right to… More

Justified Anger, Just Retribution

– Imprimis, Hillsdale College, June 1974.
Excerpt: Between 1966 and 1971 the U.S. murder rate increased by 52 percent, and the crime rate as a whole by 74 percent, as reported in Crime in the United States: Uniform Crime Reports,… More

For Capital Punishment

– Harper's Magazine, April 1979; reprinted in Walter Berns, In Defense of Liberal Democracy (Regnery Gateway, 1984).
Excerpt: Until recently, my business did not require me to think about the punishment of criminals in general or the legitimacy and efficacy of capital punishment in particular. In a vague… More

Killing & the State

– Peter L. Berger, Commentary, August 1979.
Excerpt: In the case of this book, the title and subtitle give, for once, an accurate idea of the contents. The book is a frank plea in favor of capital punishment.

Defending the Death Penalty

– Crime & Delinquency 26:4 (October 1980)  503–11; reprinted in Contemporary Moral Issue, Wesley Cragg, ed. (Whitby, ON: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1983).
Excerpt: The allegedly moral objections to capital punishment are a product of modern amoral political philosophy, from which has derived the modern reluctance to exact retribution.… More

The Need for Public Authority

– Modern Age 24:1 (Winter 1980); reprinted in Freedom and Virtue: The Conservative and Libertarian Debate, George W. Carey, ed. (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1984; reprinted, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2004).
Excerpt: Some ten years ago, I resigned from Cornel1 University; at that time the university had just been taken over by students carrying guns, and first the administration and then the… More

The Words According to Brennan

– Wall Street Journal, October 23, 1985.
Excerpt: Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr. is an angry man who has begun to give vent to his anger off the bench and in public. Although his recent Georgetown University address… More

Capital Punishment Cases of 1972

– Encyclopedia of the American Constitution and Supplement, Leonard W. Levy, Kenneth L. Karst, and Dennis J. Mahoney, eds., 1987.

Capital Punishment Cases of 1976

– Encyclopedia of the American Constitution and Supplement, Leonard W. Levy, Kenneth L. Karst, and Dennis J. Mahoney, eds., 1987.

Taking the Constitution Seriously

– Crisis, June 1, 1987.
Excerpt: Unlike the first federal judges, whose formal legal education was likely to have been very limited indeed — John Marshall was largely self-educated in the law and John Jay, the… More

The Morality of Anger

– Philosophy of Punishment, Robert M. Baird and Stuart E. Rosenbaum, eds. (Amherst, MA: Prometheus Books, 1988, 1995).

Retribution as the Ground for Punishment

– Crime and Punishment: Issues in Criminal Justice, Fred E. Baumann and Kenneth M. Jensen, eds. (Public Affairs Conference Center, Kenyon College, 1989).
Abstract: When societies do not believe their laws are just, they lack the confidence and strength to punish criminals. Some criminologists and social scientists in the past argued that… More

Getting Away with Murder

– Commentary, April 1994.
Excerpt: Trial by a jury of one’s peers is a venerable institution. Like Blackstone before him in England, the American Joseph Story, in his justly famous Commentaries on the… More

Vengeance? Executing McVeigh Would Be Moral

– Washington Post, June 8, 1997.
Excerpt: Timothy McVeigh deserves to be punished. Almost all of us can agree on that, but does he deserve to be executed? The Denver jury has to answer that question, but the larger… More

Why the Death Penalty Is Fair

– Wall Street Journal, January 9, 1998.
Excerpt: The death penalty is much in the news. With jurors failing to agree on a sentence for Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols, he will escape the maximum legal punishment… More

Where Are the Death Penalty Critics Today?

– Wall Street Journal, July 11, 2001.
Excerpt: Timothy McVeigh’s execution today is noteworthy, coming as it does a “mere” six years since the bombing in Oklahoma City and three since he was convicted and… More

Religion and the Death Penalty

– Speech delivered at Harvard Law School, September 17, 2004; reprinted in Democracy and the Constitution: Landmarks of Contemporary Political Thought (AEI Press, 2006).
Excerpt: The best case for the death penalty—or, at least, the best explanation of it—was made, paradoxically, by one of the most famous of its opponents, Albert Camus, the French… More

Religion and the Death Penalty

– Weekly Standard, February 4, 2008.
Excerpt: The best case for the death penalty–or, at least, the best explanation of it–was made, paradoxically, by one of the most famous of its opponents, Albert Camus, the… More

Essays

Violence, Morality and the Law

– The Intercollegiate Review 9:2 (Spring 1974).
Excerpt: In Political Violence and Civil Disobedience, Ernest van den Haag argues that the problem underlying civil disobedience is the question whether there is ever a moral right to… More

Justified Anger, Just Retribution

– Imprimis, Hillsdale College, June 1974.
Excerpt: Between 1966 and 1971 the U.S. murder rate increased by 52 percent, and the crime rate as a whole by 74 percent, as reported in Crime in the United States: Uniform Crime Reports,… More

For Capital Punishment

– Harper's Magazine, April 1979; reprinted in Walter Berns, In Defense of Liberal Democracy (Regnery Gateway, 1984).
Excerpt: Until recently, my business did not require me to think about the punishment of criminals in general or the legitimacy and efficacy of capital punishment in particular. In a vague… More

Killing & the State

– Peter L. Berger, Commentary, August 1979.
Excerpt: In the case of this book, the title and subtitle give, for once, an accurate idea of the contents. The book is a frank plea in favor of capital punishment.

Defending the Death Penalty

– Crime & Delinquency 26:4 (October 1980)  503–11; reprinted in Contemporary Moral Issue, Wesley Cragg, ed. (Whitby, ON: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1983).
Excerpt: The allegedly moral objections to capital punishment are a product of modern amoral political philosophy, from which has derived the modern reluctance to exact retribution.… More

The Need for Public Authority

– Modern Age 24:1 (Winter 1980); reprinted in Freedom and Virtue: The Conservative and Libertarian Debate, George W. Carey, ed. (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1984; reprinted, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2004).
Excerpt: Some ten years ago, I resigned from Cornel1 University; at that time the university had just been taken over by students carrying guns, and first the administration and then the… More

The Words According to Brennan

– Wall Street Journal, October 23, 1985.
Excerpt: Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr. is an angry man who has begun to give vent to his anger off the bench and in public. Although his recent Georgetown University address… More

Capital Punishment Cases of 1972

– Encyclopedia of the American Constitution and Supplement, Leonard W. Levy, Kenneth L. Karst, and Dennis J. Mahoney, eds., 1987.

Capital Punishment Cases of 1976

– Encyclopedia of the American Constitution and Supplement, Leonard W. Levy, Kenneth L. Karst, and Dennis J. Mahoney, eds., 1987.

Taking the Constitution Seriously

– Crisis, June 1, 1987.
Excerpt: Unlike the first federal judges, whose formal legal education was likely to have been very limited indeed — John Marshall was largely self-educated in the law and John Jay, the… More

The Morality of Anger

– Philosophy of Punishment, Robert M. Baird and Stuart E. Rosenbaum, eds. (Amherst, MA: Prometheus Books, 1988, 1995).

Retribution as the Ground for Punishment

– Crime and Punishment: Issues in Criminal Justice, Fred E. Baumann and Kenneth M. Jensen, eds. (Public Affairs Conference Center, Kenyon College, 1989).
Abstract: When societies do not believe their laws are just, they lack the confidence and strength to punish criminals. Some criminologists and social scientists in the past argued that… More

Getting Away with Murder

– Commentary, April 1994.
Excerpt: Trial by a jury of one’s peers is a venerable institution. Like Blackstone before him in England, the American Joseph Story, in his justly famous Commentaries on the… More

Vengeance? Executing McVeigh Would Be Moral

– Washington Post, June 8, 1997.
Excerpt: Timothy McVeigh deserves to be punished. Almost all of us can agree on that, but does he deserve to be executed? The Denver jury has to answer that question, but the larger… More

Why the Death Penalty Is Fair

– Wall Street Journal, January 9, 1998.
Excerpt: The death penalty is much in the news. With jurors failing to agree on a sentence for Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols, he will escape the maximum legal punishment… More

Where Are the Death Penalty Critics Today?

– Wall Street Journal, July 11, 2001.
Excerpt: Timothy McVeigh’s execution today is noteworthy, coming as it does a “mere” six years since the bombing in Oklahoma City and three since he was convicted and… More

Religion and the Death Penalty

– Speech delivered at Harvard Law School, September 17, 2004; reprinted in Democracy and the Constitution: Landmarks of Contemporary Political Thought (AEI Press, 2006).
Excerpt: The best case for the death penalty—or, at least, the best explanation of it—was made, paradoxically, by one of the most famous of its opponents, Albert Camus, the French… More

Religion and the Death Penalty

– Weekly Standard, February 4, 2008.
Excerpt: The best case for the death penalty–or, at least, the best explanation of it–was made, paradoxically, by one of the most famous of its opponents, Albert Camus, the… More

Commentary

Violence, Morality and the Law

– The Intercollegiate Review 9:2 (Spring 1974).
Excerpt: In Political Violence and Civil Disobedience, Ernest van den Haag argues that the problem underlying civil disobedience is the question whether there is ever a moral right to… More

Justified Anger, Just Retribution

– Imprimis, Hillsdale College, June 1974.
Excerpt: Between 1966 and 1971 the U.S. murder rate increased by 52 percent, and the crime rate as a whole by 74 percent, as reported in Crime in the United States: Uniform Crime Reports,… More

For Capital Punishment

– Harper's Magazine, April 1979; reprinted in Walter Berns, In Defense of Liberal Democracy (Regnery Gateway, 1984).
Excerpt: Until recently, my business did not require me to think about the punishment of criminals in general or the legitimacy and efficacy of capital punishment in particular. In a vague… More

Killing & the State

– Peter L. Berger, Commentary, August 1979.
Excerpt: In the case of this book, the title and subtitle give, for once, an accurate idea of the contents. The book is a frank plea in favor of capital punishment.

Defending the Death Penalty

– Crime & Delinquency 26:4 (October 1980)  503–11; reprinted in Contemporary Moral Issue, Wesley Cragg, ed. (Whitby, ON: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1983).
Excerpt: The allegedly moral objections to capital punishment are a product of modern amoral political philosophy, from which has derived the modern reluctance to exact retribution.… More

The Need for Public Authority

– Modern Age 24:1 (Winter 1980); reprinted in Freedom and Virtue: The Conservative and Libertarian Debate, George W. Carey, ed. (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1984; reprinted, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2004).
Excerpt: Some ten years ago, I resigned from Cornel1 University; at that time the university had just been taken over by students carrying guns, and first the administration and then the… More

The Words According to Brennan

– Wall Street Journal, October 23, 1985.
Excerpt: Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr. is an angry man who has begun to give vent to his anger off the bench and in public. Although his recent Georgetown University address… More

Capital Punishment Cases of 1972

– Encyclopedia of the American Constitution and Supplement, Leonard W. Levy, Kenneth L. Karst, and Dennis J. Mahoney, eds., 1987.

Capital Punishment Cases of 1976

– Encyclopedia of the American Constitution and Supplement, Leonard W. Levy, Kenneth L. Karst, and Dennis J. Mahoney, eds., 1987.

Taking the Constitution Seriously

– Crisis, June 1, 1987.
Excerpt: Unlike the first federal judges, whose formal legal education was likely to have been very limited indeed — John Marshall was largely self-educated in the law and John Jay, the… More

The Morality of Anger

– Philosophy of Punishment, Robert M. Baird and Stuart E. Rosenbaum, eds. (Amherst, MA: Prometheus Books, 1988, 1995).

Retribution as the Ground for Punishment

– Crime and Punishment: Issues in Criminal Justice, Fred E. Baumann and Kenneth M. Jensen, eds. (Public Affairs Conference Center, Kenyon College, 1989).
Abstract: When societies do not believe their laws are just, they lack the confidence and strength to punish criminals. Some criminologists and social scientists in the past argued that… More

Getting Away with Murder

– Commentary, April 1994.
Excerpt: Trial by a jury of one’s peers is a venerable institution. Like Blackstone before him in England, the American Joseph Story, in his justly famous Commentaries on the… More

Vengeance? Executing McVeigh Would Be Moral

– Washington Post, June 8, 1997.
Excerpt: Timothy McVeigh deserves to be punished. Almost all of us can agree on that, but does he deserve to be executed? The Denver jury has to answer that question, but the larger… More

Why the Death Penalty Is Fair

– Wall Street Journal, January 9, 1998.
Excerpt: The death penalty is much in the news. With jurors failing to agree on a sentence for Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols, he will escape the maximum legal punishment… More

Where Are the Death Penalty Critics Today?

– Wall Street Journal, July 11, 2001.
Excerpt: Timothy McVeigh’s execution today is noteworthy, coming as it does a “mere” six years since the bombing in Oklahoma City and three since he was convicted and… More

Religion and the Death Penalty

– Speech delivered at Harvard Law School, September 17, 2004; reprinted in Democracy and the Constitution: Landmarks of Contemporary Political Thought (AEI Press, 2006).
Excerpt: The best case for the death penalty—or, at least, the best explanation of it—was made, paradoxically, by one of the most famous of its opponents, Albert Camus, the French… More

Religion and the Death Penalty

– Weekly Standard, February 4, 2008.
Excerpt: The best case for the death penalty–or, at least, the best explanation of it–was made, paradoxically, by one of the most famous of its opponents, Albert Camus, the… More

Multimedia

Violence, Morality and the Law

– The Intercollegiate Review 9:2 (Spring 1974).
Excerpt: In Political Violence and Civil Disobedience, Ernest van den Haag argues that the problem underlying civil disobedience is the question whether there is ever a moral right to… More

Justified Anger, Just Retribution

– Imprimis, Hillsdale College, June 1974.
Excerpt: Between 1966 and 1971 the U.S. murder rate increased by 52 percent, and the crime rate as a whole by 74 percent, as reported in Crime in the United States: Uniform Crime Reports,… More

For Capital Punishment

– Harper's Magazine, April 1979; reprinted in Walter Berns, In Defense of Liberal Democracy (Regnery Gateway, 1984).
Excerpt: Until recently, my business did not require me to think about the punishment of criminals in general or the legitimacy and efficacy of capital punishment in particular. In a vague… More

Killing & the State

– Peter L. Berger, Commentary, August 1979.
Excerpt: In the case of this book, the title and subtitle give, for once, an accurate idea of the contents. The book is a frank plea in favor of capital punishment.

Defending the Death Penalty

– Crime & Delinquency 26:4 (October 1980)  503–11; reprinted in Contemporary Moral Issue, Wesley Cragg, ed. (Whitby, ON: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1983).
Excerpt: The allegedly moral objections to capital punishment are a product of modern amoral political philosophy, from which has derived the modern reluctance to exact retribution.… More

The Need for Public Authority

– Modern Age 24:1 (Winter 1980); reprinted in Freedom and Virtue: The Conservative and Libertarian Debate, George W. Carey, ed. (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1984; reprinted, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2004).
Excerpt: Some ten years ago, I resigned from Cornel1 University; at that time the university had just been taken over by students carrying guns, and first the administration and then the… More

The Words According to Brennan

– Wall Street Journal, October 23, 1985.
Excerpt: Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr. is an angry man who has begun to give vent to his anger off the bench and in public. Although his recent Georgetown University address… More

Capital Punishment Cases of 1972

– Encyclopedia of the American Constitution and Supplement, Leonard W. Levy, Kenneth L. Karst, and Dennis J. Mahoney, eds., 1987.

Capital Punishment Cases of 1976

– Encyclopedia of the American Constitution and Supplement, Leonard W. Levy, Kenneth L. Karst, and Dennis J. Mahoney, eds., 1987.

Taking the Constitution Seriously

– Crisis, June 1, 1987.
Excerpt: Unlike the first federal judges, whose formal legal education was likely to have been very limited indeed — John Marshall was largely self-educated in the law and John Jay, the… More

The Morality of Anger

– Philosophy of Punishment, Robert M. Baird and Stuart E. Rosenbaum, eds. (Amherst, MA: Prometheus Books, 1988, 1995).

Retribution as the Ground for Punishment

– Crime and Punishment: Issues in Criminal Justice, Fred E. Baumann and Kenneth M. Jensen, eds. (Public Affairs Conference Center, Kenyon College, 1989).
Abstract: When societies do not believe their laws are just, they lack the confidence and strength to punish criminals. Some criminologists and social scientists in the past argued that… More

Getting Away with Murder

– Commentary, April 1994.
Excerpt: Trial by a jury of one’s peers is a venerable institution. Like Blackstone before him in England, the American Joseph Story, in his justly famous Commentaries on the… More

Vengeance? Executing McVeigh Would Be Moral

– Washington Post, June 8, 1997.
Excerpt: Timothy McVeigh deserves to be punished. Almost all of us can agree on that, but does he deserve to be executed? The Denver jury has to answer that question, but the larger… More

Why the Death Penalty Is Fair

– Wall Street Journal, January 9, 1998.
Excerpt: The death penalty is much in the news. With jurors failing to agree on a sentence for Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols, he will escape the maximum legal punishment… More

Where Are the Death Penalty Critics Today?

– Wall Street Journal, July 11, 2001.
Excerpt: Timothy McVeigh’s execution today is noteworthy, coming as it does a “mere” six years since the bombing in Oklahoma City and three since he was convicted and… More

Religion and the Death Penalty

– Speech delivered at Harvard Law School, September 17, 2004; reprinted in Democracy and the Constitution: Landmarks of Contemporary Political Thought (AEI Press, 2006).
Excerpt: The best case for the death penalty—or, at least, the best explanation of it—was made, paradoxically, by one of the most famous of its opponents, Albert Camus, the French… More

Religion and the Death Penalty

– Weekly Standard, February 4, 2008.
Excerpt: The best case for the death penalty–or, at least, the best explanation of it–was made, paradoxically, by one of the most famous of its opponents, Albert Camus, the… More

Teaching

Violence, Morality and the Law

– The Intercollegiate Review 9:2 (Spring 1974).
Excerpt: In Political Violence and Civil Disobedience, Ernest van den Haag argues that the problem underlying civil disobedience is the question whether there is ever a moral right to… More

Justified Anger, Just Retribution

– Imprimis, Hillsdale College, June 1974.
Excerpt: Between 1966 and 1971 the U.S. murder rate increased by 52 percent, and the crime rate as a whole by 74 percent, as reported in Crime in the United States: Uniform Crime Reports,… More

For Capital Punishment

– Harper's Magazine, April 1979; reprinted in Walter Berns, In Defense of Liberal Democracy (Regnery Gateway, 1984).
Excerpt: Until recently, my business did not require me to think about the punishment of criminals in general or the legitimacy and efficacy of capital punishment in particular. In a vague… More

Killing & the State

– Peter L. Berger, Commentary, August 1979.
Excerpt: In the case of this book, the title and subtitle give, for once, an accurate idea of the contents. The book is a frank plea in favor of capital punishment.

Defending the Death Penalty

– Crime & Delinquency 26:4 (October 1980)  503–11; reprinted in Contemporary Moral Issue, Wesley Cragg, ed. (Whitby, ON: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1983).
Excerpt: The allegedly moral objections to capital punishment are a product of modern amoral political philosophy, from which has derived the modern reluctance to exact retribution.… More

The Need for Public Authority

– Modern Age 24:1 (Winter 1980); reprinted in Freedom and Virtue: The Conservative and Libertarian Debate, George W. Carey, ed. (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1984; reprinted, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2004).
Excerpt: Some ten years ago, I resigned from Cornel1 University; at that time the university had just been taken over by students carrying guns, and first the administration and then the… More

The Words According to Brennan

– Wall Street Journal, October 23, 1985.
Excerpt: Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr. is an angry man who has begun to give vent to his anger off the bench and in public. Although his recent Georgetown University address… More

Capital Punishment Cases of 1972

– Encyclopedia of the American Constitution and Supplement, Leonard W. Levy, Kenneth L. Karst, and Dennis J. Mahoney, eds., 1987.

Capital Punishment Cases of 1976

– Encyclopedia of the American Constitution and Supplement, Leonard W. Levy, Kenneth L. Karst, and Dennis J. Mahoney, eds., 1987.

Taking the Constitution Seriously

– Crisis, June 1, 1987.
Excerpt: Unlike the first federal judges, whose formal legal education was likely to have been very limited indeed — John Marshall was largely self-educated in the law and John Jay, the… More

The Morality of Anger

– Philosophy of Punishment, Robert M. Baird and Stuart E. Rosenbaum, eds. (Amherst, MA: Prometheus Books, 1988, 1995).

Retribution as the Ground for Punishment

– Crime and Punishment: Issues in Criminal Justice, Fred E. Baumann and Kenneth M. Jensen, eds. (Public Affairs Conference Center, Kenyon College, 1989).
Abstract: When societies do not believe their laws are just, they lack the confidence and strength to punish criminals. Some criminologists and social scientists in the past argued that… More

Getting Away with Murder

– Commentary, April 1994.
Excerpt: Trial by a jury of one’s peers is a venerable institution. Like Blackstone before him in England, the American Joseph Story, in his justly famous Commentaries on the… More

Vengeance? Executing McVeigh Would Be Moral

– Washington Post, June 8, 1997.
Excerpt: Timothy McVeigh deserves to be punished. Almost all of us can agree on that, but does he deserve to be executed? The Denver jury has to answer that question, but the larger… More

Why the Death Penalty Is Fair

– Wall Street Journal, January 9, 1998.
Excerpt: The death penalty is much in the news. With jurors failing to agree on a sentence for Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols, he will escape the maximum legal punishment… More

Where Are the Death Penalty Critics Today?

– Wall Street Journal, July 11, 2001.
Excerpt: Timothy McVeigh’s execution today is noteworthy, coming as it does a “mere” six years since the bombing in Oklahoma City and three since he was convicted and… More

Religion and the Death Penalty

– Speech delivered at Harvard Law School, September 17, 2004; reprinted in Democracy and the Constitution: Landmarks of Contemporary Political Thought (AEI Press, 2006).
Excerpt: The best case for the death penalty—or, at least, the best explanation of it—was made, paradoxically, by one of the most famous of its opponents, Albert Camus, the French… More

Religion and the Death Penalty

– Weekly Standard, February 4, 2008.
Excerpt: The best case for the death penalty–or, at least, the best explanation of it–was made, paradoxically, by one of the most famous of its opponents, Albert Camus, the… More