1. CHAPTER ELEVEN:
Legal Issues and the Death Penalty
Learning Objectives
1. Discuss the foundations that support legal rights of prisoners.
2. Describe the role of the U.S. Supreme Court in interpreting correctional law.
3. Understand the constitutional rights of prisoners.
4. List and describe alternatives to litigation.
5. Discuss the case law concerning the application of the death penalty.
Brief Chapter Outline
I. The Foundations of Correctional Law
a. Constitutions
b. Statutes
c. Case Law
d. Regulations
II. Correctional Law and the U.S. Supreme Court
a. The End of the Hands-Off Policy
b. Access to the Courts
c. The Prisoners’ Rights Movement
III. Constitutional Rights of Prisoners
a. The First Amendment
b. The Fourth Amendment
c. The Eighth Amendment
d. The Fourteenth Amendment
e. A Change in Judicial Direction
IV. Alternatives to Litigation
a. Inmate-Grievance Procedure
b. The Ombudsman
c. Mediation
d. Legal Assistance
V. The Death Penalty
a. Key U.S. Supreme Court Decisions
b. Continuing Legal Issues
c. Who is on Death Row?
d. Public Opinion and the Death Penalty

2. Media Tools
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/
This website provides students with access to information concerning with death penalty.
Students are linked to information, resources, facts, and reports about the past and current
practices of the death penalty in the United States.
http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/articles.htm
This website links students to many articles that maintain that the death penalty is an acceptable
punishment that should continue to exist in the United States.
http://www.deathpenalty.org/
This website links students to a nonprofit organization whose mission is to abolish the death
penalty. The organization aims to spread their message through public education and a grass
roots effort of political organization.
http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/cp05.pdf
This publication provides students to access about statistical information and publications about
the death penalty in the United States. It includes information on state laws concerning the death
penalty, methods of execution and the statistical information on the demographics of individuals
sentenced to death.
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local&id=7574012
The link above is an article that discusses how there has been an increase in the number of
lawsuits filed by correctional inmates. It introduces the concept of frivolous lawsuits.
The Life of David Gale
This film is a drama about the controversial death penalty. A philosophy professor is sentenced
to death for the murder of his research coworker, both of whom work for a nonprofit agency that
wants to abolish the death penalty. The film addressed the common arguments for and against
the death penalty.
Brubaker
After watching this film students should be able to discuss the concept of inhuman prison
conditions and the response of Warden Brubaker to remedy these conditions.