In the century following the Civil War, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia legally executed hundreds of men and women convicted of capital crimes. Based on exhaustive research of court records, newspapers death certificates and even gravestones, this book provides the essential details of each case. Arranged by state, entries for each execution are listed in chronological order, giving the name, race and age of the prisoner and a description of the crime of which he or she was convicted. The motive, if known, the date and place of the execution, and relevant sources are also included. Appendices provide preliminary lists of executions in these states before 1866, including some cases dating back to the 17th century. A significant number of hitherto undiscovered executions, further reveals that America's experience with capital punishment is more extensive than previously known.

In the state of Georgia, 1025 men and women are known to have been hanged or electrocuted for capital crimes in the century after the Civil War. Based on more than twenty years of investigative research, this chronological record of these legal executions was pieced together from diverse sources in and outside of the state, with many details never before made public. The author documents the facts as they occurred without delving into the politics of capital punishment.

Presented in chronological order, this book provides essential details about the 1,152 men and women who were legally put to death in North and South Carolina during the century after the Civil War. Each entry contains information about the criminals themselves and the deeds which cost them their lives. Based almost entirely on original archival materials such as court records, contemporary newspapers, prisoner files, appellate reports, gubernatorial correspondence, etc., a newer picture of the historical record emerges that students of Southern justice will find both revealing and disconcerting.

In the five state region of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky and Missouri, 1027 men and women are known to have been legally hanged, gassed or electrocuted for capital crimes during the century after the Civil War. Drawing on thousands of hours of research, this comprehensive record covers each execution in chronological order, filling numerous gaps in a largely forgotten story of the American experience. The author presents each case dispassionately with the main focus given to essential facts.

"A landmark dissenting opinion arguing against the death penalty. Does the death penalty violate the Constitution? In Against the Death Penalty, Justice Stephen Breyer argues that it does; that it is carried out unfairly and inconsistently and, thus, violates the ban on ""cruel and unusual punishments"" specified by the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. “Today’s administration of the death penalty,” Breyer writes, “involves three fundamental constitutional defects: (1) serious unreliability, (2) arbitrariness in application, and (3) unconscionably long delays that undermine the death penalty’s penological purpose. Perhaps as a result, (4) most places within the United States have abandoned its use.” This volume contains Breyer's dissent in the case of Glossip v. Gross, which involved an unsuccessful challenge to Oklahoma's use of a lethal-injection drug because it might cause severe pain. Justice Breyer's legal citations have been edited to make them understandable to a general audience, but the text retains the full force of his powerful argument that the time has come for the Supreme Court to revisit the constitutionality of the death penalty. Breyer was joined in his dissent from the bench by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Their passionate argument has been cited by many legal experts including fellow Justice Antonin Scalia—as signaling an eventual Court ruling striking down the death penalty. A similar dissent in 1963 by Breyer's mentor, Justice Arthur J. Goldberg, helped set the stage for a later ruling, imposing what turned out to be a four-year moratorium on executions."

"Explores in colonial Newport, Rhode Island, the tumultuous marriage of Benedict and Mary Arnold in the 1720s and 1730s. In and through their sordid and possibly criminal marital story, in which Mary is accused of poisoning Benedict, Crane sheds light on the liabilities and possibilities for women under couverture, the complex social and economic networks that bound together the elite and laboring classes of Newport, and the trans-oceanic cultures of trade, consumption, and sociability that came to shape expectations for marital satisfaction on both sides of the Atlantic"--

In Clarke County, the spirits of the past bring history to life. The ghost of a brokenhearted Confederate soldier stares out a window waiting in vain for the return of the love of his life. Victims of a plane crash still linger at the scene of the tragedy forty-five years later. Union troops are still crossing the Shenandoah River through a hail of musket balls and cannon fire. From the legendary phantom coach of Carter Hall to lesser-known haunts along the county's back roads, a rock-throwing poltergeist, a smoky figure in a bedroom and strange creatures lurking in the woods, Michael Hess brings you the very best in Clarke County ghost lore.

Includes statistics of prisoners received and discharged during the year, for state and federal penal instututions.