The American Jury and the Death Penalty

Abstract

The reversal of civilized opinion on the death penalty during the past century and a half has been truly remarkable. It is an example of law in the process of radical change.' As late as 1825 England had no less than 230 capital crimes on its law books. By the turn of the century legislative inroads had reduced the capital list to murder and treason, and, after an attempt to reduce it still further to certain types of murder, the English evolution has come to completion and the death penalty has now been abolished for all crimes.2 Although in England the death penalty, wherever applicable by statute, was mandatory on the trial process, the English jury played a major role in its gradual attenuation. On many occasions the jury simply refused to convict a clearly guilty defendant in order to

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