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  • Justice, Mercy, and Caprice: Clemency and the Death Penalty in Ireland

    Justice, Mercy, and Caprice by O'Donnell, Ian;

    Clemency and the Death Penalty in Ireland

    Series: Clarendon Studies in Criminology;

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    Product details:

    • Publisher OUP Oxford
    • Date of Publication 9 November 2017

    • ISBN 9780198798477
    • Binding Hardback
    • No. of pages330 pages
    • Size 224x149x26 mm
    • Weight 546 g
    • Language English
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    Short description:

    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.

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    Long description:

    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.

    ... meticulous evaluation of primary sources ... an authoritative account of clemency in Ireland ... raises important questions about the role of gender in the adjudication of punishment ... This book will be useful to legal scholars, historians, sociologists, criminologists, abolitionists, and any laypeople who seek to drive their home countries away from practices rooted in cruelty and caprice, and towards policies rooted in justice and mercy.

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    Table of Contents:

    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

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