Historical Context

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

"An execution is not simply death. It is just as different from the privation of life as a concentration camp is from prison. It adds to death a rule, a public premeditation known to the future victim, an organization which is itself a source of moral sufferings more terrible than death. Capital punishment is the most premeditated of murders, to which no criminal's deed, however calculated can be compared."

-Albert Camus, "Reflections on the Guillotine, Resistance, Rebellion & Death" (1956).

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN DEATH PENALTY

STANFORD V. KENTUCKY CONTEXT

ROPER V. SIMMONS CONTEXT

Background: A Headline from the Valentine Democrat. 9 Apr. 1903.