go to   Web Site Links        Online Databases (RHC Students only)        Books        Library Catalog        Media        Articles        Text-only version for printing     

Web Site Links     top

American Civil Liberties Union - Death Penalty
http://www.aclu.org/capital/index.html
This abolitionist site contains articles on various aspects of the death penalty, particularly lethal injection, race and death penalty, habeas reform, and the execution of innocent people.  A searchable database of ACLU news articles in also available.  Extensive links to other death penalty sites.

Angel on Death Row
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/angel/
Pro and con arguments, interviews, cases, and a death penalty chronology are presented.  Based on "The real life cases in Dead Man Walking."

Capital Punishment Statistics
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/cp.htm
From the Bureau of Justice Statistics--the Annual BJS Capital Punishment Bulletin gives prisoner characteristics and movement on death sentence status ; statistics on race, executions, prisoners awaiting execution, and correctional populations are also included.

Death Penalty Information Center
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/
Site maintained by the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit group serving the media and public on issues concerning capital punishment. Click on "Information Topics" on the page to find up-to-date facts and figures, a list of executions, the cost of executions, etc.

Death Penalty Information Web Site
http://deathpenaltycurriculum.org/student/index.html
Arguments for and against the death penalty, the stages in a capital case, history, methods of execution, state-by-state data, courtroom cases and additional links.  Excellent site from Michigan State University. 

Death Penalty News and Updates
http://people.smu.edu/rhalperi/
Includes information on current executions in the United States, death penalty-related news, statistics on executions by state, statistical summaries, and more.  The site is against the death penalty and provides information on contacting U.S. law makers and on actions regarding the death penalty.

Derechos Human Rights - Death Penalty Links
http://www.derechos.org/dp/
Derechos Human Rights is a human rights organization maintaining a site that has regional information, pro death penalty arguments, abolition information, and a list of countries that have the death penalty (dated August 1997).

The High Cost of the Death Penalty to Taxpayers
http://www.deathpenalty.org/article.php?id=42
The group Death Penalty Focus of California has calculated the cost of the death penalty in Los Angeles County.

Online Databases (Rio Hondo Students only)    top
Rio Hondo College databases.

Gale Virtual Reference Library
An interesting database that provides chapters on the subject from various perspectives, including historical and constitutional.

Health and Wellness Resource Center
This database provides a medical perspective about the subject and addresses the issue of doctors being involved in the process.

Issue & Controversies @ Facts.com
This database currently has "Lethal Injection" listed as one of its Issues in the Headlines, as well as other information found by searching for the subject.

SIRS
This database already has 'capital punishment' selected as one of its 'leading issues' topics and further breaks it down into categories such as, religious aspects, juveniles, economic aspects and statistics.

Books     top
The following books can be located in the Rio Hondo College Library.

Reference Books
Non-circulating:

Death penalty on trial : a handbook with cases, laws, and documents (ABC-CLIO's on trial series)
Call number: Ref KF9227.C2G47 2005

Encyclopedia of capital punishment
Call number: Ref HV8694.G76 1998

Encyclopedia of crime & justice
Call number: Ref HV6017.E52 2002

Encyclopedia of crime and punishment
Call number: Ref HV6017.E524 2002

Illustrated great decisions of the Supreme Court
Call number: Ref KF4549.M334 2006

Macmillan encyclopedia of death and dying
Call number: Ref HQ1073.M33 2003

Problems with death
Call number: Ref HQ1073.5.U6P76 2006

West’s encyclopedia of American law
Call number: Ref KF154.W47 2005

Suggested Subject Headings
For additional titles on this topic at Rio Hondo, click on the following Library of Congress subject headings:

Capital punishment

Capital punishment--Moral and ethical aspects

Capital punishment--Political aspects

Capital punishment--United States

Library Catalog    top
Use the box below to search for additional resources in Rio Hondo College Library.

Media     top
The following media can be located in the Rio Hondo College Library, to be viewed in the Library.

Dead man walking
Call number: Video 001101
Honoring the request of a lonely and desperate man, Sister Helen Prejean writes to Matthew Poncelet, the condemned killer of two teenage lovers, and is wholly unprepared for the relationship which follows. When the date is set for Matthew's execution, he asks Sister Helen to be his spiritual advisor and she complies. As she comes to see the terrfied human beneath Matt's brash, unrepentant facade, she becomes increasingly disturbed, not only by his terrible anguish, but also by the rage of the victims' families. With the clock ticking away his final days, she struggles for the life, dignity and soul of a confused and angry man. It is her faith and courage that sustains her when she stands with Matthew and with the victims' families.

The death penalty : right or wrong? (NewsMatters)
Call number: Video 001221
Designed to encourage students to question and contemplate the issues involved in capital punishment.

The execution
Call number: Video 000499
Explores capital punishment through the story of Clifford Boggess, a 30-year-old who spent almost a decade on death row. In the United States, executions have become almost routine, especially in Texas, where Boggess, a pianist, artist, class valedictorian and convicted murderer awaited the execution chamber. And while he waited, the families of his two victims impatiently awaited his death in June 1998.

Articles   top
The Rio Hondo College Library provides online access to full-text articles through our online databases.  Please note:  you must be a Rio Hondo College student, faculty, staff or board member to use these services.

The sample searches and articles below are from the ProQuest database.  If you are viewing this subject guide from an on-campus computer, simply click on the links below.   To gain access if you are at home or off-campus, first click here: https://rioweb.riohondo.edu/library/.  Input your student number and password [your birthdate].  You will see a list of all the online databases to which you have access.  Click on ProQuest and enter the database.  You may conduct your own searches at this point or come back to this subject guide and click on any of the links below:

SU(capital punishment)   [from Peer-Reviewed Journals]
SU(capital punishment) AND SU(criminal sentences)    [from Peer-Reviewed Journals]
SU(capital punishment) AND SU(supreme court decisions)   [from Peer-Reviewed Journals]

Researched and evaluated by:
D. Yashar, Librarian 12/1997
update: D. Yashar, Librarian 8/2008
last update: D. Yashar, Librarian 9/2009

top