This course examines capital punishment from a philosophical and jurisprudential perspective (judicial and legislative), and considers it in relation to the goals of punishment (retribution, deterrence, incapacitation, rehabilitation), the concept of the rule of law in society, majority rule and public opinion, the nature of legal rules and concepts, morality, and the nature of judicial decision making. The seminar will explore the use of capital punishment and what the founding generation understood the purpose and scope of capital punishment to be. The heart of the seminar will involve the modern approach to capital punishment as reflected in the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1972 to the present, with in intense focus on what various justices advocated. Students will investigate and discuss contemporary issues including the scope, utility, and fairness of capital punishment with respect to mental retardation, age, gender, and race, evaluating how these notions have manifested themselves in the decisions of the Supreme Court and specifically the thinking of individual justices.