A Due Process Challenge to the Constitutionality of the Death Penalty in the United States

Abstract:     
The underpinning for an untested challenge to the constitutionality of the death penalty in the United States is provided. The proposed challenge relies on the logical force of a Lockean argument against the death penalty, a relevant collection of recent empirical findings and related commentary from the literature of the social sciences, an appeal to a fundamental principle of justice, and the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment to the U. S. Constitution.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 7

Keywords: John Locke, right of compensation, death penalty, due process, fourteenth amendment

JEL Classification: K14, J38, D63

Accepted Paper Series