Abstract

BAEZ-VILLASENOR, María Estela. Death penalty in the United States: from public derision to private execution. Sig. his [online]. 2018, vol.20, n.39, pp.150-189.  Epub Aug 03, 2020. ISSN 1665-4420.

Death penalty has been accepted through the years by the United States as a useful way to deal with criminals. This practice was in accordance to a system which required swift justice. The appearance and development of the rule of law in which individual rights were recognized increased the opposition to this measure. Capital punishment has been abolished in almost all Western countries, but in the case of the United States many local legislatures include death penalty statutes. This paper has the purpose of approaching the ever-changing debate surrounding this practice in the United States, in order to review different sceneries that have modified both how the executions take place, replacing public executions in favor of private ones, and the public perception regarding them.

Keywords : maximum penalty; individual guarantee; rule of law, law; justice.