"Investigating the attitudes about capital punishment in contemporary America, this book poses the question: can ending the death penalty be done democratically? How is it that a liberal democracy like the United States shares the distinction of being a leading proponent of the death penalty with some of the world's most repressive regimes? Reporting on the first study of initiative and referendum processes used to decide the fate of the death penalty in the United States, this book explains how these processes have played an important, but generally neglected, role in the recent history of America's death penalty. While numerous scholars have argued that the death penalty is incompatible with democracy and that it cannot be reconciled with democracy's underlying commitment to respect the equal dignity of all, Professor Austin Sarat offers the first study of what happens when the public gets to decide on the fate of capital punishment"-- Provided by publisher.

"Introduction: When the Death Penalty Goes Public 2016 was not a good year for opponents of capital punishment in the United States. Their cause suffered an important setback when Donald Trump, an avid death penalty supporter, was elected president. With Trump's election, and his choice of Jeff Sessions as Attorney General, hope for continued restraint in the use of the federal death penalty and for the appointment of Supreme Court justices opposed to the death penalty was dashed. In addition, voters in several states expressed their support for capital punishment. The results of ballot measures in California, Oklahoma, and Nebraska ensured a future for capital punishment in all three states. California voters narrowly rejected Proposition 62, a measure that would have ended the death penalty and replaced it with life imprisonment without parole. By a similarly narrow margin they approved Proposition 66, which was designed to speed up the death penalty process by designating special courts to hear challenges to death penalty convictions, while also limiting successive appeals and expanding the pool of lawyers who could handle those appeals. Two thirds of Oklahoma voters supported State Question 776, which declared that the death penalty cannot be considered cruel and unusual under that state's constitution. It also included a provision that "any method of execution shall be allowed, unless prohibited by the United States Constitution," making it possible for the state to employ the gas chamber, electrocution, or firing squad if lethal injection is ever declared unconstitutional. Finally, Nebraska voters reinstated the death penalty by a margin of sixty-one percent to thirty-nine percent just one year after state legislators had voted to abolish it"-- Provided by publisher.