Capital punishment is a dwindling sanction but it's still authorized by law, entrenched in the South and supported by millions of Americans. Carol and Jordan Steiker, professors at Harvard and the University of Texas Law Schools respectively, are the leading contemporary scholars of the death penalty. The expectation, evidence of more wishful thinking, was that the death penalty would be reserved for the "worst of the worst." Seven Justices and former Justices have indicated that the death penalty is no longer constitutional. For more that 80 % of death row inmates a death sentence has turned out really to be a life sentence under demeaning, isolated conditions that in some settings border on inhumane treatment.

Source: Huffington Post October 07, 2016 00:22 UTC