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The thesis seeks to enhance understanding of the recent reform of capital punishment law, policies and institutions in China by studying its causes, significance, and limits. The research surveys the reform initiated by China’s top judiciary – the Supreme People’s Court - around 2006-2007. It demonstrates a changing domestic socio-political context, within which the external and internal impetus to reform is inevitable. Drawn from elite interview evidence with penal policy makers including judges, prosecutors, and legislators, the thesis concludes that Europe-inspired, cross-border abolitionist sentiments created motivation for change in China through soft mechanisms of shaming and persuasion, albeit to a limited degree. In the domestic realm, the research identified three pairs of interrelated tensions – the contradiction between elites and the public, the conflict between political intervention and judicial autonomy, and the divergent interests and priorities between top judicial organs and lower courts. These tensions are useful social, political and legal indicators to explain why and how China reformed its capital punishment machinery.

1 Death Penalty - Summary As the theme of my thesis, I've chosen the death sentence. Such sentence has accompanied the human society from the early times. From the history to these days, it helped to maintain the public order and the law enforcement. The public order was seen differently in each society and every historical stage. However, there was always one thing in common, it intended to protect life, safety, law enforcement and community rules. During the period of economic growth, abundance and prosperity, the society tends to treat law and public order intruders more liberally. The "western part" of civilization is currently at this evolution stage. Our country is firmly integrated into the European Union. There is a straightforward common understanding. The death penalty is prohibited and it has to be respected. The world tends away from the death penalty in general. I've outlined the questions to be addressed at the introduction part of the thesis. I structured the dissertation into ten chapters. Further supplements are attached to the material, including the photographic documentation provided on my own, deeds and other documents related to the topic. I explain the definition of the death sentence and its purpose in the first chapter. I introduce different theories about the purpose of the death...

My dissertation will seek to explain the voting behavior of judges in state courts of last resort in death penalty appeals cases. To do this, I have constructed a dataset that encompasses all death penalty appeals cases in 30 states during the period 2000-2006. The dependent variable in my quantitative analyses is the vote rendered by each judge in each case, and can take on two values: a vote to uphold the sentence of death, or a vote to reverse or vacate the sentence of death. Drawing from the judicial literature, my independent variables will include personal factors, institutional factors, and environmental factors. Personal factors include the gender and race of the judge, which the literature suggests are related to differences in judicial behavior. I will also use ideology scores developed by Brace et al. (2000), but only for a subset of cases for which those scores are available. Institutional factors include the party identification of the governor at the time the judge was appointed or elected, the party identification of the governor at the time the case was decided, and the party composition of the state House and Senate at the time the case was decided. Environmental factors include the state murder rate, the number of executions since 1976, and the number of inmates on death row at the time of the decision. The theoretical underpinning of this research is derived from the new institutionalism, which posits that judges’ decisions are shaped not only by judicial attitudes and strategic considerations, but by a variety of institutional and environmental factors. I hypothesize that the institutional and environmental factors previously enumerated will have a significant impact on the voting behavior of state high court judges in death penalty appeals. To test my hypotheses, I will use logistic regression to construct models incorporating all of the previously mentioned variables.

This dissertation explores public attitudes towards criminal punishment in Western societies and seeks to explain why some individuals are more punitive than others. A model of punitiveness with several domains of focus for explaining variation in punitiveness including objective risk of crime, conservative climate, and population diversity at the country level and demographics, conservative worldview and perceptions of crime, law and order at the individual level is tested with data on punitiveness from two multinational surveys using hierarchical logistic regression techniques. Analyses reveal that males, married individuals, and those who are concerned about crime are more punitive. The rest of the findings are specific to the way punitiveness is measured. Individuals younger than age 45, individuals who perceive the police as ineffective and individuals who have been victims of violent crime tend to prefer incarceration for a recidivist burglar. Those who believe in a personal God are more supportive of the death penalty while individuals with higher levels of religiosity are less in favor of the death penalty. Further, individuals who live in societies with more religious heterogeneity and where public belief in a literal hell is more prominent are most likely prefer a prison sentence for a recidivist burglar and individuals who live in countries with higher levels of lethal violence are more in favor of the death penalty. Religious heterogeneity and public belief in hell account for 42% of the variation across Western societies in preference for prison for a repeat burglar while homicide rate accounts for over 75% of the variation in support for capital punishment across Western societies. Conservative religious belief at the contextual level appears to be positively related to support for capital punishment indirectly through the homicide rate suggesting that support for the death penalty may be influenced by the normality of lethal violence in society dependent in part on contextual levels of conservative religious belief. This dissertation enhances the understanding of punitiveness by providing the most comprehensive multi-level study of public punitiveness to date and proves that religious factors, both personal and contextual, are central to understanding variation in attitudes toward punishment. / text

This dissertation analyzes social and legal influences on Texas death-sentenced prisoners who hastened their own execution. Using variables derived from research on other types of decisions to hasten death, I compare these prisoners with other similarly-situated condemned prisoners who did not seek to hasten execution, and develop a theoretical model for their decisions. In addition, I examine both how these prisoners explain their decisions, and how court proceedings can shape these explanations. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of the sociolegal construction of different rights to die. / text

This thesis provides a critique of the penology of capital punishment from the perspectives of Christianity and Islam. In order to ascertain the basic theological approaches of both religions towards capital punishment, Chapters 2 and 3 examine the core Scriptural texts, laws and traditions of both Christianity and Islam respectively. These chapters reveal how different methods of Scriptural interpretation and differences in religious practice, within each faith, have led to divergent opinions regarding the legitimacy and acceptability of capital punishment. Chapters 4 and 5 examine two of the primary penological justifications for the death penalty; retributivism and deterrence. It is demonstrated how they can be used, within secular and religious frameworks, to both condemn and condone the use of the punishment. Chapter 6 considers a variety of contemporary methods used to execute offenders and asks whether the methods used have any effect on the religious acceptance or rejection of the penalty. Finally, Chapter 7 presents one of the most controversial aspects of the contemporary death penalty debate, namely the unequal application of the penalty as it pertains particularly to black offenders, indigent offenders and mentally ill offenders. This serious criticism of the death penalty is considered first in general secular terms and then in light of the teachings of both religions and it is asked how the religious arguments in favour of the death penalty stand in light of such serious violations of human rights and justice. The thesis concludes with the assertion that, while a strong case can be made from within both religions for the use of capital punishment in principle, in practice given current practices of criminal justice systems worldwide there is a strong case to be made, if not for abolition, then at least for a drastic curtailment of the practice and a long-term moratorium on capital punishment on religious grounds.

Orientador: Robert Wayne Andrew Slenes / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciencias Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-21T17:24:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Pirola_RicardoFigueiredo_D.pdf: 2191923 bytes, checksum: b7748fae2de0412c15ff97c6aaf0c09a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012 / Resumo: Em 10 de junho de 1835 foi sancionada pelo regente imperial uma nova lei de repressão aos crimes cometidos por escravos. Em relação à legislação existente a nova lei ampliava o número de delitos praticados por cativos, que passariam a ser condenados com a pena capital, e encurtava os procedimentos para o julgamento e execução de sentença. Apesar da recorrente indicação na historiografia sobre a importância dessa lei na repressão de movimentos de contestação escrava e na aplicação da pena de morte, o assunto tem recebido ainda pouca atenção. Esta tese de doutorado busca analisar o contexto que levou à criação e aprovação da lei de 10 de junho de 1835 e também sua aplicação ao longo do século XIX / Abstract: On June 10 1835, Brazil's imperial regent sanctioned a new law to repress crimes committed by slaves. Compared to the existing legislation, the new law shortened trial and sentencing procedures, and increased the number of slave crimes which were to be subject to mandatory capital punishment. Despite historiography of this law's central role in the repression of slave protests and in the application of the death penalty, the subject-matter has received little attention from historians. This doctoral dissertation analyzes the context that led to the creation of the June 10 1835 law, and also the application of the law thorough the nineteenth century / Doutorado / Historia Social / Doutor em História

This thesis deals with one of the instruments of criminal law, specifically with the death penalty. The death penalty is already for many years a controversial topic and discussed it around the world. Even if this penalty many states have several years or decades canceled or not applied it, greatly debating whether they should be re-imposed. After an introductory explanation of why I chose the death penalty as a topic of my thesis, followed by a treatise about punishment, its kinds, purpose together with theories that look at this, and more specifically about what exactly is meant by the term death penalty and how the purpose of already listed, relates specifically to it. In the next part of my work we find general historical development of this institute, development of capital punishment in the Czech Republic and international documents concerning human rights and also my theme. In the context of the general historical development we look at how the death penalty looked like in antiquity, the Middle Ages, the period of absolutism gradually until we get to the present. Within Czech countries will focus on the developments till 1918, during the first republic, the Protectorate period, the postwar development and the development until 1990, when the death penalty was abolished in our country....

Death Penalty - Summary In my thesis I focused on one of the most discussed and one of the oldest institutes of criminal law - the death penalty. Despite the fact that the death penalty was abolished in most of countries (as a result of the abolitionist movement), some countries still continue to apply it. Also public opinion on this issue is not constant. The purpose of this research is not just to explore all aspects of capital punishment in the modern world, but also to reach a subjective opinion on this issue. This thesis is composed of five chapters. Each deals with the different aspects of the capital punishment. In the first chapter, I focused on the history of capital punishment in the world, from ancient world to the early 20th century. Chapter describes the application of the death penalty in different times and different cultures. I analyze the laws of different nations and countries and describe the methods of executions. I also pay attention to the opinion of well known authors (philosophers and politicians). The second chapter describes the history of the death penalty in Czech Republic, from the early beginning until abolition of death penalty in 1990. The third chapter is devoted to analysis of the current situation in the world. It describes laws and methods of executions in the countries...