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"Full of Internal Contradictions": A Neutral Case for the Invalidation of the Death Penalty

Whitehurst, Carson A.
Abstract
A neutral evaluation of the modern death penalty, a fundamentally flawed institution, necessitates its invalidation. I analyze 428 death sentences and their appellate outcomes from Virginia, Texas, California, Pennsylvania, Colorado, and Wyoming, states which represent the gamut of capital punishment regimes in the United States. Employing a legal framework derived from the work of Justice Antonin Scalia—a lifelong and staunch supporter of the death penalty—I argue that the harmonious-reading canon and irreconcilability canons offer a neutral means for ending the American death penalty, and one which would be appropriate given the politicization of what is an irreversible punishment.
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2019-04-01
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Undergraduate Honors Theses
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Nemacheck, Christine
Gershowitz, Adam
Sasser, Jr, Jackson N.
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Government
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https://scholarworks.wm.edu/handle/internal/10697
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