Ulteriori informazioni
The book is a work of criminal justice history that speaks to the emergence of a more humane Irish state - a close examination of the decision to grant clemency to those sentenced to death between 1923 and 1990, addressing important issues of law and penology that are of continuing relevance for countries that use capital punishment.
Sommario
- Preface
- List of tables
- Introduction
- The revolutionary period
- Parameters of inquiry
- Avoiding death-eligibility
- Classifying Clemency
- Who, where, how?
- A tripartitie scheme
- The 'prerogative'
- For and Against Clemency
- Discretion and desert
- Cons
- Pros
- Justice, mercy, caprice
- Juries and Judges
- Weighing the evidence
- Composition
- Softening the verdict
- Donning the black cap
- A singular case
- Extraordinary Courts
- Special Powers Tribunal
- The 'terror court'
- Astounding legal manoeuvres
- Capital murder
- Governments
- Limits to discretion
- Public opinion
- Groupthink
- Arbitrary or principled decisions?
- Blurring the Separation of Powers
- Interfering judges
- A belt of the crozier
- Entreaties from His Excellency
- Judges again, now expediting release
- Undoing Death I
- A cruel lottery?
- The burden of an unwanted child
- Sex and jealousy
- Undoing Death II
- Dreadful deeds done in turbulent times
- Legally sane but strikingly odd
- Chivalry
- Caprice
- Release
- Procedures
- When?
- Whither?
- Why?
- Postscript
- Appendices
- I. Convicted of murder after trial by jury, and spared
- II. Convicted of murder after trial by jury, and hanged
- III. Sentenced to death by a non-jury court
- Bibliography
- I. Primary sources
- II. Secondary sources
- Index
Info autore
Ian O'Donnell MRIA is Professor of Criminology at University College Dublin and an Adjunct Fellow of Linacre College, Oxford. His last book, also published as part of OUP's Clarendon Studies in Criminology, was Prisoners, Solitude, and Time.
Riassunto
Justice, Mercy, and Caprice is a work of criminal justice history that speaks to the gradual emergence of a more humane Irish state. It is a close examination of the decision to grant clemency to men and women sentenced to death between the end of the civil war in 1923 and the abolition of capital punishment in 1990.
Frequently, the decision to deflect the law from its course was an attempt to introduce a measure of justice to a system where the mandatory death sentence for murder caused predictable unfairness and undue harshness. In some instances the decision to spare a life sprang from merciful motivations. In others it was capricious, depending on factors that should have had no place in the government's decision-making calculus. The custodial careers of those whose lives were spared repay scrutiny. Women tended to serve relatively short periods in prison but were often transferred to a religious institution where their confinement continued, occasionally for life. Men, by contrast, served longer in prison but were discharged directly to the community. Political offenders were either executed hastily or, when the threat of capital punishment had passed, incarcerated for extravagant periods.
This book addresses issues that are of continuing relevance for countries that employ capital punishment. It will appeal to scholars with an interest in criminal justice history, executive discretion, and death penalty studies, as well as being a useful resource for students of penology.
Testo aggiuntivo
... an exemplar of methodological rigour and literary verve ... O'Donnell's exhaustive research pierces the opaque operation of clemency. He delivers on his commitment to grasping the legal, political, and societal setting of clemency in order to understand it. The author has a special knack for zooming in and out when relating historical detail and the book is superbly written ... of great value to every researcher of clemency, no matter what their discipline or location
