Invitation to an Execution: A History of the Death Penalty in the United States

Preface

ix Preface Invitation to an Execution I n November 2004, Evan J. Mandery of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York wrote, “It is meaningless, really, to speak about the death penalty in America without being geographically specific. Each death penalty state, as well as the federal government, has its own system of determining who shall be subject to capital punishment. These systems share some basic features, but they are each unique, and some are more problematic than others.”1 This book focuses on these differences and many of the similarities among the states and with the federal government. I must thank all of the librarians who wrote for this project and who gave so many hours helping the scholars researching this most difficult topic. Without the librarians, the research would be virtually impossible given the bulk of material available to researchers. Further, the librarians helped to separate the law review material from the social science scholarship for many of the authors. Thank you! Gordon Morris Bakken California State University, Fullerton Note 1. Evan J. Mandery, “Foreword,” in Jon Sorensen and Rocky Leann Pilgrim, Lethal Injection: Capital Punishment in Texas during the Modern Era (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006), ix. ...