Race, Innocence, and End of Death Penalty - Class Syllabus Review and Survey
Dive into the complexities of race, innocence, and the death penalty in POLI 203 with Prof. Frank R. Baumgartner. Explore the puzzle of general support alongside low and declining use of the death penalty. Get ready for impactful speakers sharing firsthand experiences of the criminal justice system's flaws. Understand the challenges of addressing horrific crimes and injustices in a thought-provoking environment.
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POLI 203, POLI 203, Race, Innocence, and the End of the Race, Innocence, and the End of the Death Penalty Death Penalty Prof. Prof. Frank R. Baumgartner Frank R. Baumgartner January 8, 2025 January 8, 2025 Plan for the day Review syllabus, highlights, logistics, speakers Do an anonymous survey Prepare for the Best Class You Ever Had! Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 1
Syllabus Get used to these web sites: http://fbaum.unc.edu/teaching.htm http://fbaum.unc.edu/books/DeadlyJustice/index.html http://fbaum.unc.edu/ The class Canvas page for confidential information, assignments, quizzes, and to submit your work. Note there are two sites: One for the lecture (section 001) and one for your recitation. Submit work on the recitation section site. Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 2
Enrollment The class is full, as usual. I have no control over the registrar s website. (I can t just admit you even if I want to, so don t ask, please. Same with your TA.) I expect a lot of churning in the first week, as this is typical. Be careful about dropping your section before you have a new one. You may be locked out. I cannot fix it. I have not taught the course since Spring 2022. However, I expect to teach it in Spring 2026 if you do not get in this semester. Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 3
Speakers Monday evenings, 5:30 to 7:00pm, 8 events starting Jan 27, ending March 31; write these dates down in your calendar. This is, by far, where the most learning will occur. I m going to stuff your brains with facts and figures, and we all know how well that sometimes works. These speakers will make you understand it. They ll describe their own experiences in some of the worst situations imaginable, from Angola Prison in Louisiana, to having the police arrest and convict the wrong person when a family member is killed. Attendance is mandatory. See the syllabus for the grade penalties. Missing 3 events = one entire letter grade in this class. Don t do it. Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 4
The puzzle: General support, but low and declining use of the death penalty Innocence, cost, lethal injection controversies have caused a crisis for the death penalty. On the other hand, many people support it, and historically a majority generally have supported it. Many politicians are jittery about expressing opposition to it. Many forcefully support killing the worst of the worst. It s also an interesting question to contemplate: What SHOULD be the penalty for a particular crime? Eye-for-an-eye seems pretty intuitive! We ll explore all these trends with a focus on facts. Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 5
Difficult subject matter The entire class is one big trigger: horrific crimes, terrible injustices, personal stories of torture, the list goes on. So we need to be careful with the content and the material. Take a break sometimes. General warning: Newspaper stories almost always have a description / reminder of the horrific crime. Legal appeals and court opinions / rulings almost always start with a short section laying out the facts of the case, generally right at the start. If these were not horrific and upsetting, the person would not be appealing their death sentence The crimes are bad, then then again so is the official misconduct. The entire class is about death and killing. Either the government is laying out a massive bureaucratic system to kill the defendant, or the original crime may be discussed. One big downer good description of this class. So take a break. Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 6
Respect and anger The class also deals with a controversial subject matter where people disagree at very basic levels, often based on religious tradition. So, we need to practice our skills of respectful engagement. That means listening, first. Second, expressing oneself clearly. Third, engaging with ideas, not the people stating them. Some of these topics can generate anger. Please don t speak out of anger. It s ok to be angry! But let s not turn this class into an anger- fest. Process the anger, then speak when you ve processed it. These are important lessons for other areas as well. Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 7
Our own opinions The class is NOT about whether we support or oppose the death penalty and why. We can talk about those things, particularly the most common and effective arguments for one side or the other, but we are not going to focus, at all, on whether one of us supports or opposes the death penalty. That s none of my business. It is about learning the facts about how the death penalty works, really, in practice, as compared to how one might like to assume it should work. That s a generalizable skill that I highly recommend. Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 8
Patriotism and faith in the system There s a lot of discussion these days about Critical Race Theory and the allegation that it s unpatriotic. This class is not about CRT, but it definitely concentrates on the warts, not the beauty, of our country. The distressing elements of this class can be overwhelming, and they can make you frustrated or angry at our country. My attitude, and I hope one you can accept for this semester: We cannot make the system better by focusing on rainbows, unicorns, and toxic positivity. Wishful thinking is not analysis. Ignoring the ugly parts is purposeful ignorance. That s not what we are going to do here. We can only improve the system by looking at its worst flaws, and correcting those. Then the next worst ones, and correct those, and so on. It s hard work, can be depressing, but we struggle on in an attitude of continual improvement. Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 9
Political science We ll definitely address some important concepts in political science: Federalism: why do states get to decide? Why not have one nation under law ? Public opinion and representative democracy: Should the punishment for murder depend on the public mood? Race, poverty, gender, other identities, and discrimination: How much proof is needed / should be needed to make something unconstitutional because of its disparate impact on different groups? And more: No end to the theoretical questions we will pose. Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 10
Assignments Two fantastic books for everyone to read: Baumgartner, Frank R., Marty Davidson, Kaneesha R. Johnson, Arvind Krishnamurthy, and Colin P. Wilson. 2018. Deadly Justice: A Statistical Portrait of the Death Penalty. New York: Oxford University Press. Please review the book website in some detail and especially the links. This books was written specifically from this class, for this class. Harris, Lynden, ed. 2021. Right Here, Right Now: Life Stories from America s Death Row. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Don t try to read this all at once! Just a few stories at a time. Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 11
Assignments (more details on the syllabus) Attendance and participation in your recitation section 4 short essays (300 words) responding to the essays in Right Here, Right Now 1800 word paper on an element of the death penalty from Deadly Justice that you choose to explore in greater detail, with approval by your TA Quizzes Attendance at evening lectures Final exam Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 12
Effort This is a fun course on a really interesting topic. You will get WAAAY more out of this course if you put something into it. My advice: Do the readings before lecture. Download the slides and read along, take notes. After class, before discussion section if possible, do the readings again. (It will make more sense after the lecture.) Review the lecture slides again. There will be regular quizzes so this will help you stay up to date. Also read the extra things I post on the class website. Many will be current events, news stories, videos, etc. Watch movies, listen to podcasts, all that as you wish. The more the better. Try to link those facts to the general material in the course. See the big picture. Come to class and to lecture with questions. Feel free to email me. Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 13
Please review the syllabus for more details Grading policy, disabilities, plagiarism / honesty. Ask me questions or talk with your TA to make sure you understand. Section locations, TA s, TA emails, all that is in the syllabus. Each TA will lay out their office hours and policies and establish a Sakai site for their sections. Also see the class website for the university attendance policies, accommodations, and other policies. Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 14
Now, an anonymous survey 11 questions about the death penalty taken from the Gallup Poll. Your answers are of interest so we can compare them to national polls. 20 (or so) questions about factual knowledge. Please don t stress over these. Certainly don t google anything! Just give a quick response and move to the next one. You have not taken the course yet so you don t need to know these things. I just want to assess the state of the field before we start. Note: Completely anonymous; we cannot track responses If you have no idea, skip the question. But feel free to guess. Please take enough time to finish, but don t over-think the answers. When you are done, you may leave. https://unc.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_56zsIW0HJ3fgpy6 Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 15
