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9780190901165

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Yost...has written a brilliant analysis of philosophical arguments for and against the death penalty. Surveying hundreds of scholarly articles and works about capital punishment, the author carefully documents the inadequacies of pro-death penalty reasoning used by philosophers from Immanuel Kant to the present. Yost covers political theories, philosophical arguments, and legal justifications, surveying issues such as deterrence, irrevocability, cost/benefit balance, inadequacy of attorneys, and the inherent fallibility of the American criminal justice system. Most important, he identifies a serious paradigm shift toward abolition of the death penalty...This is a seminal, comprehensive treatment of the capital punishment...Essential. -- CHOICE Benjamin S. Yost has written a meticulously researched and tightly argued treatment of the morality of execution...Yost's book is the most powerful treatment of the procedural argument against execution in the scholarly literature. Its intricate arguments richly repay close study. In light of the injustice of capital punishment, we can only hope that Yost's arguments will serve as potent intellectual ammunition for the righteous citizens fighting tirelessly for abolition. I recommend the book wholeheartedly. -- Notre Dame Philosphical Reviews Philosophically, this book is to date the most sophisticated presentation of the proceduralist case for abolishing capital punishment. Opponents of the death penalty will be able to draw with profit upon Benjamin Yost's nuanced arguments, and supporters of the death penalty will need to come to grips with those arguments in order to counter them. --Matthew H. Kramer, Professor of Legal and Political Philosophy, Cambridge University The death penalty is the most severe punishment available for those countries that still retain it. Debates about whether it can be justified have run for as long as there has been capital punishment in any society--where each side largely digs in against the other. Benjamin Yost's defence of procedural abolitionism opens a new, convincing front as to why all of us, including retributivists, should not support death as a punishment. --Thom Brooks, Dean & Professor of Law and Government, Durham University Appealing to the inherent human fallibility in the administration of the death penalty, Yost's Against Capital Punishment is a careful (and novel) attempt to show that capital punishment should be abolished. Legitimate legal systems correct and remedy their errors, but this commitment, Yost argues, is incompatible with punishing even the worst criminals with death. By shifting debates about capital punishment away from familiar disputes about desert and deterrence toward neglected questions about its place in fair legal practices, Yost succeeds in altering the parameters of scholarly discussions surrounding capital punishment's defensibility. --Michael Cholbi, Department of Philosophy, Cal Poly Pomona

Philosophically, this book is to date the most sophisticated presentation of the proceduralist case for abolishing capital punishment. Opponents of the death penalty will be able to draw with profit upon Benjamin Yost's nuanced arguments, and supporters of the death penalty will need to come to grips with those arguments in order to counter them. --Matthew H. Kramer, Professor of Legal and Political Philosophy, Cambridge University The death penalty is the most severe punishment available for those countries that still retain it. Debates about whether it can be justified have run for as long as there has been capital punishment in any society--where each side largely digs in against the other. Benjamin Yost's defence of procedural abolitionism opens a new, convincing front as to why all of us, including retributivists, should not support death as a punishment. --Thom Brooks, Dean & Professor of Law and Government, Durham University Appealing to the inherent human fallibility in the administration of the death penalty, Yost's Against Capital Punishment is a careful (and novel) attempt to show that capital punishment should be abolished. Legitimate legal systems correct and remedy their errors, but this commitment, Yost argues, is incompatible with punishing even the worst criminals with death. By shifting debates about capital punishment away from familiar disputes about desert and deterrence toward neglected questions about its place in fair legal practices, Yost succeeds in altering the parameters of scholarly discussions surrounding capital punishment's defensibility. --Michael Cholbi, Department of Philosophy, Cal Poly Pomona

Appealing to the inherent human fallibility in the administration of the death penalty, Yost's Against Capital Punishment is a careful (and novel) attempt to show that capital punishment should be abolished. Legitimate legal systems correct and remedy their errors, but this commitment, Yost argues, is incompatible with punishing even the worst criminals with death. By shifting debates about capital punishment away from familiar disputes about desert and deterrence toward neglected questions about its place in fair legal practices, Yost succeeds in altering the parameters of scholarly discussions surrounding capital punishments defensibility. * Michael Cholbi, Department of Philosophy, Cal Poly Pomona * The death penalty is the most severe punishment available for those countries that still retain it. Debates about whether it can be justified have run for as long as there has been capital punishment in any society-where each side largely digs in against the other. Benjamin Yost's defence of procedural abolitionism opens a new, convincing front as to why all of us, including retributivists, should not support death as a punishment. * Thom Brooks, Dean & Professor of Law and Government, Durham University * Philosophically, this book is to date the most sophisticated presentation of the proceduralist case for abolishing capital punishment. Opponents of the death penalty will be able to draw with profit upon Benjamin Yost's nuanced arguments, and supporters of the death penalty will need to come to grips with those arguments in order to counter them. * Matthew H. Kramer, Professor of Legal and Political Philosophy, Cambridge University *

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Benjamin S. Yost is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Providence College and has previously taught at Harvard University and Cornell University. His specializations include the philosophy of punishment and Kant's practical philosophy, with his published work appearing in journals such as Utilitas, Journal of the American Philosophical Association, Kantian Review, and Continental Philosophy Review. He is currently co-editing a volume entitled Philosophers on the Movement for Black Lives.

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