Podcasts about courting death the supreme court

In July 2020, the death penalty attracted national attention when the Trump Administration and the Department of Justice reinstituted federal executions for the first time in more than 17 years. Ultimately, the administration carried out an unprecedented 13 executions in six months. The death penalty continues to make headlines today amid several recent important developments. In this episode, WilmerHale podcast co-host and Partner http://auth.wilmerhale.com.verndale-prod.com/en/people/john-walsh (John Walsh) welcomes Partner http://auth.wilmerhale.com.verndale-prod.com/en/people/seth-waxman (Seth Waxman) and guest Professor https://hls.harvard.edu/faculty/directory/10840/Steiker (Carol Steiker) for an in-depth discussion of the death penalty in America.  Waxman, who is the co-chair of WilmerHale's http://auth.wilmerhale.com.verndale-prod.com/en/solutions/appellate-and-supreme-court-litigation (Appellate and Supreme Court Litigation Practice), served as Solicitor General of the United States from 1997 through January 2001. He is one of the country's foremost appellate advocates, including in death penalty cases. He has represented death row inmates over the course of 36 years while in private law practice, and has argued and won several death penalty cases in the US Supreme Court. Those victories include Roper v. Simmons, in which the Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional for juvenile offenders. Most recently, Waxman was part of a team of WilmerHale lawyers who represented Wes Purkey, a federal inmate who was executed in July 2020.    Steiker is the Henry J. Friendly Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the Harvard faculty sponsor of the Capital Punishment Clinic. She served as the faculty co-director of the Harvard Criminal Justice Policy Program from 2015–2020. A former law clerk for US Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, Professor Steiker focuses on criminal justice, with an emphasis on issues related to capital punishment. She is an author on death penalty matters, including the recent book Courting Death: The Supreme Court and Capital Punishment, which she co-authored with her brother Jordan Steiker, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law.  Links: Carol Steiker's books, https://hls.harvard.edu/faculty/directory/10840/Steiker (Courting Death: The Supreme Court and Capital Punishment) and Criminal Procedure Stories: An In-Depth Look at Leading Criminal Procedure Cases Charles L. Black, Jr.'s book, https://www.amazon.com/Capital-Punishment-Inevitability-Caprice-Mistake/dp/0393952894 (Capital Punishment: The Inevitability of Caprice and Mistake) https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/725/608/57969/ (Jack Carlton House case) https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/ (Death Penalty Information Center) (see page about https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/policy-issues/race (Race and the death penalty)) https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2021/06/02/most-americans-favor-the-death-penalty-despite-concerns-about-its-administration/ (Most Americans Favor the Death Penalty Despite Concerns About Its Administration) (Pew Research Center) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55236260 (In Trump's final days, a rush of federal executions) (BBC) https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-administration-pushes-boston-marathon-bomber-death-sentence-2021-06-15/ (Biden administration pushes for Boston Marathon bomber death sentence) (Reuters) https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/17/south-carolina-law-death-row-inmates-firing-squad-electric-chair (South Carolina: new law makes inmates choose firing squad or electric chair) (The Guardian) https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/garland-orders-halt-federal-executions-official/story?id=78621507 (Garland orders halt to any further federal executions) (ABC News)

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Harvard Law School Professor Carol Steiker, co-author of Courting Death: The Supreme Court and Capital Punishment to explore recent death penalty cases before the Supreme Court and why the 8th amendment has raised tensions among the justices. This episode is brought to you by The Great Courses Plus.  Get your free trial, plus 50% off your monthly plan at TheGreatCoursesPlus.com/Amicus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Harvard Law School Professor Carol Steiker, co-author of Courting Death: The Supreme Court and Capital Punishment to explore recent death penalty cases before the Supreme Court and why the 8th amendment has raised tensions among the justices. This episode is brought to you by The Great Courses Plus.  Get your free trial, plus 50% off your monthly plan at TheGreatCoursesPlus.com/Amicus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's episode we're looking into a practice that sets the U.S. aside from all other Western countries: Capital Punishment. So, is the death penalty a part of the constitution? How has the Supreme Court ruled on the issue? And ultimately, what can we learn about ourselves from the practice? Our guest today is Carol Steiker, Harvard Law Professor and author of Courting Death: The Supreme Court and Capital Punishment.

Harvard Law Professor Carol Steiker, co-author of the highly acclaimed book, Courting Death: The Supreme Court and Capital Punishment (https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/books-courting-death-the-supreme-court-and-capital-punishment), joins DPIC’s Robin Konrad for a provocative discussion of the past and future of America’s death penalty. Professor Steiker, who served as a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, takes us inside the walls of the court for insights on the justices’ approaches to capital-punishment jurisprudence and the impact of Justice Marshall’s legacy on the Court today. She explains the relationship between lynching and the rise of the modern death penalty in the United States, discusses the plunge in death-penalty usage since the 1990s, and offers thoughts on the future prospects for capital punishment in America.

In recent decades, there has been much study and debate in the criminal justice community regarding capital punishment and its continued use in most jurisdictions in the United States. Some argue that years of litigation and growing cost have contributed to a new fragility in support for the death penalty and point to polling that reflects decreased enthusiasm for it. Others assert the November 2016 election results at the State and Federal levels demonstrate capital punishment continues to be firmly backed by the public and will remain in place indefinitely. -- Professor Carol Steiker of Harvard Law School, author of the recently released, Courting Death - The Supreme Court and Capital Punishment and Professor William Otis, Adjunct Professor of Law for Georgetown University Law Center and former federal prosecutor, joined us for an insightful look at this important topic. -- Featuring: Professor William G. Otis, Adjunct Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center and Professor Carol Steiker, Henry J. Friendly Professor of Law, Harvard Law School.