Against Capital Punishment The Anti-Death Penalty Movement in America, 1972-1994

by Haines, Herbert H.

• ISBN13: 9780195132496
• ISBN10: 0195132491
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-08-19
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Built on in-depth interviews with movement leaders and the records of key abolitionist organizations, this work traces the struggle against capital punishment in the United States since 1972. Haines reviews the legal battles that led to the short-lived suspension of the death penalty and examines the subsequent conservative turn in the courts that has forced death penalty opponents to rely less on litigation strategies and more on political action. Employing social movement theory, he diagnoses the causes of the anti-death penalty movement's inability to mobilize widespread opposition to executions, and he makes pointed recommendations for improving its effectiveness. For this edition Haines has included a new Afterword in which he summarizes developments in the movement since 1994.

Author Biography

Herbert H. Haines is Associate Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York at Cortland. He is the author of Black Radicals and the Civil Rights Mainstream, 1954-1970 (1988), which was selected as an Outstanding Book by the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in the United States.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Death Penalty Abolitionism in America	3	(20)
Historical Cycles of American Abolitionism	7	(9)
Death Penalty Abolitionism and Modern Social Movements	16	(3)
Analytical Framework	19	(4)
1. The Fall and Rise of Capital Punishment: 1965-1976	23	(32)
The Road to Furman: 1965-1972	23	(22)
The Struggle Against Restoration: 1972-1976	45	(7)
Gregg and Woodson	52	(3)
2. The Return of the Executioner: 1976-1982	55	(18)
Refining the Death Penalty Process	55	(2)
"Let's Do It": Gary Gilmore and the Return of Executions in America	57	(2)
The Slow Reawakening of Abolitionism	59	(10)
Out of the Courtroom: 1976-1982	69	(2)
Summary	71	(2)
3. The Reemergence of Political Abolitionism	73	(44)
"Deregulating Death": 1983-1994	74	(5)
Organizational Growth After 1983	79	(4)
Reframing the Death Penalty	83	(19)
The Struggle to Diversify	102	(15)
4. Framing Disputes in the Movement Against Capital Punishment	117	(31)
Litigators and Abolitionists: Who Calls the Shots?	118	(4)
"Humanizing the Convict"	122	(8)
Direct Action and Civil Disobedience	130	(5)
The Alternatives Minefield	135	(8)
Coalition Work and the Broader Context of Abolition	143	(5)
5. Abolitionism at the Crossroads	148	(19)
Resources in the Struggle Against Capital Punishment	149	(12)
"...The Worst of Times": Political Opportunity and Abolitionism	161	(1)
Framing the Death Penalty	162	(5)
6. Reframing Capital Punishment: Pragmatic Abolitionism	167	(30)
The Costs of Capital Punishment Systems	169	(4)
The Ineffectiveness of Capital Punishment	173	(4)
The "Abolition Dividend" and Realistic Crime Control	177	(16)
Prospects for the Future	193	(4)
Afterword--Spring, 1999	197	(12)
Notes	209	(24)
References	233	(18)
Index	251