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| About the Author | |
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| Introduction | |
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| History and Overview of Capital Punishment | |
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| In General | |
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| Religious View of Capital Punishment | |
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| History of Capital Punishment in America | |
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| Ban on the Death Penalty in the United States | |
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| Reintroduction of the Death Penalty in the United States | |
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| Chronology of the Death Penalty in America | |
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| Present Application of the Death Penalty | |
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| Death Penalty Jurisdictions | |
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| Statistics | |
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| Capital Offenses | |
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| The Abolitionist Movement | |
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| Public Opinion | |
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| In General | |
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| Financial Concerns: Weighing the Costs | |
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| Life Imprisonment: A Less Costly Alternative | |
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| Deterrence | |
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| Suicide-by-Execution Syndrome | |
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| The International Status of Capital Punishment | |
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| In General | |
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| The Trend Towards Abolishing the Death Penalty | |
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| Countries That Have Abolished the Death Penalty for All Crimes | |
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| "Exceptional Crimes" Death Penalty Countries | |
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| "De Facto" Abolitionist Countries | |
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| Countries That Practice the Death Penalty (Retentionist Countries) | |
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| International Death Sentences and Executions | |
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| International Agreements to Abolish the Death Penalty | |
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| The Sixth Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights | |
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| The Second Optional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights to Abolish the Death Penalty | |
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| The Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights to Abolish the Death Penalty | |
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| Juvenile Offenders and the Death Penalty | |
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| The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child | |
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| Methods of Execution | |
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| Early Methods of Execution | |
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| Ling Chi: Death by a Thousand Cuts | |
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| Hanging, Drawing, and Quartering | |
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| Breaking on the Wheel | |
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| Present-Day Methods of Execution | |
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| In General | |
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| Hanging | |
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| Firing Squad | |
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| Electrocution | |
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| Lethal Gas | |
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| Lethal Injection | |
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| Baze v. Rees | |
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| The Role of the Executioner | |
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| Viewing the Execution | |
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| In General | |
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| Victim Witnesses | |
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| The Federal Death Penalty | |
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| In General | |
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| Methods of Execution | |
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| The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 (The "Drug Kingpin" Statute) | |
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| The Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994 (The "Crime Bill Expansion") | |
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| Race and the Federal Death Penalty | |
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| Procedure | |
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| Authorization | |
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| Right to Legal Representation | |
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| Appeal | |
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| Clemency | |
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| Costs | |
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| Prosecution | |
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| Defense | |
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| Native Americans | |
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| U.S. Military | |
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| History | |
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| Demographics | |
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| Prosecution | |
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| The U.S. Disciplinary Barracks | |
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| Execution Procedure | |
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| Authorized Witnesses | |
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| Legal Representation | |
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| In General | |
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| Statistics | |
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| State Prisoners | |
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| Federal Prisoners | |
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| Local Prisoners | |
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| Qualifications and Competency | |
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| U.S. Supreme Court Cases | |
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| Strickland v. Washington | |
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| Deficient Performance of Counsel | |
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| Deficient Performance Prejudiced Defendant's Right to Fair Trial | |
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| Williams v. Taylor | |
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| Cockrell v. Burdine | |
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| Bell v. Cone | |
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| Wiggins v. Smith | |
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| Florida v. Nixon | |
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| Rompilla v. Beard | |
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| The Adoption of Standards | |
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| Alabama | |
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| Nevada | |
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| Texas | |
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| Utah | |
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| Indigent Defense Programs | |
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| Public Defender Programs | |
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| Assigned Counsel Programs | |
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| The Ad Hoc Assigned Counsel Program | |
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| The Coordinated Assigned Counsel Program | |
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| Contract Attorney Programs | |
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| The Federal Indigent Defense Program | |
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| Innocence | |
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| In General | |
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| Wrongful Conviction and Execution | |
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| Contributing Factors | |
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| Expansion of Capital Crimes | |
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| Juror Bias | |
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| Laboratory Mistakes | |
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| Lack of Defense Funding | |
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| Narrowing of Appellate Rights in Capital Cases | |
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| Politics | |
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| Unreliable Evidence | |
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| Mistaken Eyewitness Testimony | |
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| Unreliable Witnesses | |
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| Unreliable Confessions | |
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| DNA Access Laws | |
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| The Justice For All Act of 2004 | |
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| Post-Conviction DNA Exonerations | |
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| Recent Death Row Exoneration Cases | |
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| Levon Jones | |
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| Glen Edward Chapman | |
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| Kennedy Brewer | |
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| Curtis McCarty | |
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| Ryan Matthews | |
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| Nicholas Yarris | |
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| Ray Krone | |
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| Charles Irvin Fain | |
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| Frank Lee Smith | |
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| Earl Washington | |
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| Execution of Innocent Defendants | |
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| Ruben Cantu | |
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| Carlos DeLuna | |
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| Gary Graham | |
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| Larry Griffin | |
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| Leonel Herrera | |
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| Jesse Jacobs | |
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| Leo Jones | |
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| Robert Nelson | |
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| Joseph O'Dell | |
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| David Spence | |
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| Cameron Willingham | |
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| Compensation for Wrongful Incarceration | |
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| Model Penal Code Recommendations | |
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| Demographics | |
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| Race and the Death Penalty | |
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| Statistics | |
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| The Race of the Victim | |
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| Women and the Death Penalty | |
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| Statistics | |
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| Executions | |
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| Age and the Death Penalty | |
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| Juvenile Offenders | |
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| Thompson v. Oklahoma | |
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| Stanford v. Kentucky | |
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| Roper v. Simmons | |
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| Execution of the Elderly | |
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| Statistics | |
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| Causes | |
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| Clarence Ray Allen | |
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| John B. Nixon, Sr. | |
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| Mental Disabilities and the Death Penalty | |
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| In General | |
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| Mental Retardation | |
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| Mental Retardation Defined | |
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| The Ban on Execution of the Mentally Retarded | |
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| Atkins v. Virginia | |
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| Retribution | |
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| Deterrence | |
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| Wrongful Execution | |
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| The IQ Factor | |
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| Mental Illness | |
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| Mental Illness Defined | |
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| Mental Disorders | |
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| Bipolar Disorder | |
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| Borderline Personality Disorder | |
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| Brain Damage | |
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| Depression | |
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| Dissociative Disorder | |
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| Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder | |
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| Schizophrenia | |
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| Extending the Atkins Ruling to the Mentally Ill | |
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| Recent Executions Involving the Mentally Ill | |
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| Troy Kunkle (Schizophrenia) | |
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| Donald Beardslee (Severe Brain Damage) | |
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| Charles Singleton (Schizophrenia) | |
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| Kevin Zimmerman (Brain Injury) | |
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| Hung Thanh Le (PTSD) | |
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| Kelsey Patterson (Paranoid Schizophrenia) | |
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| Robert Bryan (Paranoid Schizophrenia/Brain Disease) | |
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| Stephen Vrabel (Paranoid Schizophrenia) | |
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| Kevin Hocker (Bipolar Disorder) | |
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| Mark Bailey (Bipolar Disorder) | |
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| False Confessions and the Mentally Impaired | |
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| Sentence Review | |
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| In General | |
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| Automatic Review | |
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| Federal Habeas Corpus Review of State Criminal Convictions | |
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| In General | |
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| Jurisdiction | |
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| Case Processing Time | |
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| Representation | |
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| Types of Issues Raised in Habeas Corpus Petitions | |
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| Dismissal of the Petition | |
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| Clemency | |
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| Authority to Grant Clemency | |
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| Recent Cases | |
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| John Spirko | |
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| Jeffrey Leonard | |
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| Michael Boyd | |
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| Kenneth Foster | |
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| Robin Lovitt | |
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| Arthur P. Baird II | |
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| Michael Daniels | |
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| Broad Clemencies | |
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| Appendices | |
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| The Florida Death Penalty Statute | |
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| Table of Number of Prisoners Executed in 2007, by State | |
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| Table of Number of Prisoners Under Sentence of Death (Federal/State) as of December 31, 2006 | |
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| Table of Number of Prisoners Under Sentence of Death, by Year (1953-2006) | |
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| Table of Number of Executions (1930-2007) | |
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| Table of Capital Offenses, by State | |
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| Table of Federal Capital Offenses, by Statute | |
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| Directory of Death Penalty Abolitionist Organizations | |
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| Table of Comparison of Murder Rates in Death Penalty States with Murder Rates in Non-Death Penalty States (1990-2006) | |
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| Table of Execution Methods, by State | |
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| Table of Total Number of Executions, by State, and Methods of Execution (1976-2007) | |
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| Table of States That Have Adopted Qualification Standards for Attorneys Handling Capital Cases on Behalf of Indigent Defendants | |
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| Table of Death Row Prisoners Exonerated, by State | |
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| Table of Death Row Prisoners Exonerated, by Year | |
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| Table of Number of Prisoners Under Sentence of Death, by Race (1968-2006) | |
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| Table of Number of Women Prisoners Under Sentence of Death, by Race (Federal/State) (As of December 31, 2006) | |
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| Table of Number of Prisoners Under Sentence of Death, by Age (As of December 31, 2006) | |
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| Statutes Defining Mental Retardation for the Purpose of Imposition of the Death Penalty | |
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| Defendants with Mental Retardation Executed Since the Reinstatement of the Death Penalty | |
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| Directory of State Governors' Offices | |
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| Glossary | |
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| Bibliography and Additional Resources | |