Assistant Professor at the Florida State University College of Law
Position:
Con to the question "Should the death penalty be allowed?"
Reasoning:
"I appealed to the notion that embedded within the confrontational conception of retribution is a commitment to respecting the dignity of every person, a dignity we affirm by punishing offenders for the consequences of their freely chosen and autonomous actions. Such respect
for human dignity entails obligations to the offender as well as to ourselves, and among those is the obligation not to punish in a way that erodes human dignity. Capital punishment degrades dignity, on this view, because it unnecessarily extinguishes human life in the presence of viable alternatives. Taken together, these reasons counsel in favor not only of a blanket commutation, but also the abolition of the death penalty itself."
"State, Be Not Proud: A Retributivist Defense of the Commutation of Death Row and the Abolition of the Death Penalty," Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, Summer 2005
Experts
Individuals with MDs, JDs, PhDs, other relevant advanced degrees, corrections and government officials with significant involvement in, or related to, death penalty issues. [Note: Experts definition varies by site]
Involvement and Affiliations:
Assistant Professor, Florida State University College of Law, 2005-present
Cowritten with Jennifer M. Collins and Ethan J. Leib, Privilege or Punish? Criminal Justice and the Challenge of Family Ties, 2009
"State, Be Not Proud: A Retributivist Defense of the Commutation of Death Row and the Abolition of the Death Penalty," Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, Summer 2005
