Introduction: When the Death Penalty Goes Public

2016 was not a good year for opponents of capital punishment in the United States. Their cause suffered an important setback whenDonald Trump, an avid death penalty supporter, was elected President. With Trump’s election, and his choice of Jeff Sessions as Attorney General, hope for continued restraint in the use of the federal death penalty and for the appointment of Supreme Court justices opposed to the death penalty was dashed. In addition, voters in several states expressed their support for capital punishment. The results of ballot measures in California, Oklahoma, and Nebraska ensured a future for that punishment in all three states. California voters narrowly rejected Proposition 62, a measure that would have ended the death penalty and replaced it with life imprisonment without parole. By a similarly narrow margin they approved Proposition 66, which was designed to speed up the death penalty process by designating special courts to hear challenges