@article{277630,
      author = {Burnett, Cathleen.},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/277630},
      title = {Justice denied : clemency appeals in death penalty cases  /},
      publisher = {Northeastern University Press,},
      abstract = {Sobered by mounting evidence of wrongful convictions in  capital cases, both death penalty advocates and  abolitionists are calling for a moratorium on executions in  the United States. This book delves into the difficult  questions surrounding the heated public and legal debate  about a criminal justice system that risks the  state-sanctioned killing of an innocent person.  Focusing  on executive clemency petitions, the final hope for death  row inmates, Cathleen Burnett exposes troubling flaws in  the legal process of administering the death penalty. Her  in-depth examination of all of the fifty petitions  presented to the governors of Missouri since the state  reinstated capital punishment in 1977, shows how the  machinery of justice often fails the condemned and their  victims alike. Skillfully interweaving her investigation  with compelling case studies, Burnett considers particular  stages in death penalty convictions to illuminate the  mistakes and miscarriages of justice commonly addressed in  clemency petitions -- police misconduct and false  testimony; overzealous prosecution; ineffective defense  counsel; judicial prejudice; and state and federal  appellate reviews that increasingly neglect the protection  of individual rights. Burnett also probes the  decision-making process in evaluating clemency petitions,  showing how political and other persuasive forces, from the  media to the Pope, limit a governor's ability to act as a  reliable fail-safe to capital punishment.},
      recid = {277630},
      pages = {xx, 251 p. ;},
      address = {Boston :},
      year = {2002},
}