Austin Sarat is associate provost and associate dean of the faculty and Cromwell professor of jurisprudence and political science, Amherst College. He is currently studying the phenomenon of botched executions, the fate of lethal injection as an execution technology, and the ways stories of exoneration from death row are told in popular culture. Sarat is also conducting research on current challenges facing American democracy and the rule of law.
The way the federal government can kill death row prisoners will soon be expanded to ghoulish methods that include hanging, the electric chair, gas chamber and the firing squad. Set to take effect on Christmas Eve, the new regulations authorizing an alternative to lethal injections – the method currently used in federal executions – were […]
In 2018, Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment ending the disenfranchisement of ex-convicts. Though it excluded people convicted of murder or sexual offenses, Amendment 4 restored voting rights to felons “after they complete all the terms of their sentence including parole or probation.” Civil rights groups and prisoner rights groups celebrated the election result. In […]
