Lethal Injection Gone Awry Renews Debate on Capital Punishment

The recent lethal injection nightmare in Oklahoma recharged the capital punishment discussion as the administered drug mixture caused prolonged agony for the inmate being executed ("Botched Oklahoma Execution Stirs Outrage, May Bring Changes," Los Angeles Times, April 30, 2014). As opposition to the death penalty increases, states are having difficulty finding drugs that will "paralyze an inmate and stop the heart," so unproven and undisclosed lethal drugs are becoming more commonplace.

Review selected hard copy and online library books and videos related to capital punishment at LSC-CyFair Branch Library. Click the title of a listed item, select the "Request" button in the listing, and enter your library card number and PIN for each title you want to reserve for pick up at the library.

Use these subject words and phrases to find more in the library catalog:

• capital punishment
• death row

"Moyers and Company: And Justice for Some: Early Electric Chair Executions" (3:42 minutes) from the Films on Demand video database - Films Media Group, 2013.
Note: Login with your My LoneStar login or Lone Star College ID/library card barcode number to view the video off campus.
"Moyers and his guests discuss the botched execution of the William Kemmler, first person sentenced to the electric chair. Some Supreme Court justices have qualms about executions but feel they must upholding the Constitution." - producer summary

A Wild Justice: The Death and Resurrection of Capital Punishment in America by Evan J. Mandery - Norton, 2013.
call number: 345.73 Man
"Mandery (criminal justice, John Jay Coll.; Capital Punishment in America: A Balanced Examination) has written a tour de force examination of how the U.S. Supreme Court from 1963 to 1977 ruled on death penalty issues. Filled with information from the justices' private papers as well as extensive interviews with their clerks and with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund counsel (especially Anthony Amsterdam), this book is revelatory." - Library Journal review excerpt

Life without Parole: What Everyone Needs to Know [electronic resource] edited by Charles J. Ogletree, Jr., and Austin Sarat - New York UP, 2012.
call number: eBook Collection database book
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"Is life without parole the perfect compromise to the death penalty? Or is it as ethically fraught as capital punishment? This comprehensive, interdisciplinary anthology treats life without parole as "the new death penalty." Editors Charles J. Ogletree, Jr. and Austin Sarat bring together original work by prominent scholars in an effort to better understand the growth of life without parole and its social, cultural, political, and legal meanings." - publishers summary excerpt