Executed Women of 20th and 21st Centuries


Book Description

Executed Women of the 20th and 21st Centuries provides a look into the lives, crimes, and executions of women during the 20th and 21st centuries. Rather than dealing with these women as numbers and statistics, this book presents them as human beings. Each of these women had lives, histories, and families. The purpose is not to condone their actions, but to suggest that those we executed are, in fact, humans—rather than monsters, as they are often portrayed.







The Rights of Women


Book Description

The Rights of Women is a comprehensive guide that explains in detail the rights of women under present U.S. law, and how these laws can be used in the continuing struggle to achieve full gender equality at home, in the workplace, at school, and in society at large. The Rights of Women explores the concept of equal protection and covers topics including employment, education, housing, and public accommodations. This handbook also examines the specific issues of trafficking, violence against women, welfare reform, and reproductive freedom. Using a straightforward question-and-answer format while translating the law into accessible language, this volume is a tool for individuals, lawyers, and advocates seeking to assert women’s rights under the law. Now in its fully revised and updated fourth edition, The Rights of Women is an invaluable guide to finding legal solutions to the most pressing issues facing women today.




Judicial Reform and Reorganization in 20th Century Iran


Book Description

Iran is now at the center of political and social developments in the Middle East. This book examines the reform of the judicial system in 20th century Iran and is the first to relate state-building process with rule of law promotion and judicial reform in the region. This subject occupies the critical juncture of three developments in the contemporary study of Iranian society as an important and early case of social revolution and reform in the Middle East: the state-building process in a non-Western country throughout the 20th century, the incorporation of a non-Western Muslim country into the Western legal framework through codification and transplantation (1911-1979), and the Islamicization process after this critical social development and the Islamic Revolution of 1979. This exceptional study furthers our understanding of Iranian modern history as well as the democratization process, human rights and rule of law issues in the Middle East.




Women and War in the 21st Century


Book Description

Twenty-three countries currently allow women to serve in front-line combat positions and others with a high likelihood of direct enemy contact. This book examines how these decisions did or did not evolve in 47 countries. This timely and fascinating book explores how different countries have determined to allow women in the military to take on combat roles—whether out of a need for personnel, a desire for the military to reflect the values of the society, or the opinion that women improve military effectiveness—or, in contrast, have disallowed such a move on behalf of the state. In addition, many countries have insurgent or dissident factions, in that have led armed resistance to state authority in which women have been present, requiring national militaries and peacekeepers to engage them, incorporate them, or disarm and deradicalize them. This country-by country analysis of the role of women in conflicts includes insightful essays on such countries as Afghanistan, China, Germany, Iraq, Israel, Russia, and the United States. Each essay provides important background information to help readers to understand the cultural and political contexts in which women have been integrated into their countries' militaries, have engaged in combat during the course of conflict, and have come to positions of political power that affect military decisions.







Felsensprengerin, Brückenbauerin, Wegbereiterin


Book Description

Die englische Komponistin Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) zählt zu den interessantesten Persönlichkeiten ihrer Epoche. In einer Zeit, in der Frauen kreative Schaffenskraft oft abgesprochen wurde, beschritt sie unbeirrt ihren Weg als professionelle Komponistin und schrieb eine Reihe von Opern sowie Orchesterwerke, Kammermusik und Lieder, die zu ihren Lebzeiten mit Erfolg aufgeführt wurden. Der Band dokumentiert die Beiträge zu zwei wissenschaftlichen Symposien, die anlässlich von Ethel Smyths 150. Geburtstag im Jahre 2008 in Detmold und Oxford stattfanden. The English composer Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) stands out as one of the most intriguing artistic figures of her day. Despite living at a time when women were often held to be utterly lacking in creative powers, she made her way unswervingly as a professional composer, writing several operas, orchestral works, chamber music and songs - works that were performed with success during her lifetime. This volume brings together papers delivered at two conferences held in Detmold and Oxford in 2008 on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Ethel Smyth's birth.




100 Years of the Infanticide Act


Book Description

This book provides the first comprehensive and detailed analysis of the Infanticide Act and its impact in England and Wales and around the world. It is 100 years since an Infanticide Act was first passed in England and Wales. The statute, re-enacted in 1938, allows for leniency to be given to women who kill their infants within the first year of life. This legislation is unique and controversial: it creates a specific offence and defence that is available only to women who kill their biological infants. Men and other carers are not able to avail of the special mitigation provided by the Act, nor are women who kill older children. The collection brings together leading experts in the field to offer important insights into the history of the law, how it works today, the impact and legacy of the statute and potential futures of infanticide laws around the world. Contributors consider the Act in practice in England and Wales, the ways it has been portrayed in the British media and justifications for and criticisms of the provision of special treatment for women who kill their infants within a year of birth. It also looks at the criminal justice responses to infanticide in other jurisdictions, such as Australia, Ireland, Sweden and the United States of America.




The Wrong Carlos


Book Description

In 1989, Texas executed Carlos DeLuna, a poor Hispanic man with childlike intelligence, for the murder of Wanda Lopez, a convenience store clerk. His execution passed unnoticed for years until a team of Columbia Law School faculty and students almost accidentally chose to investigate his case and found that DeLuna almost certainly was innocent. They discovered that no one had cared enough about either the defendant or the victim to make sure the real perpetrator was found. Everything that could go wrong in a criminal case did. This book documents DeLunaÕs conviction, which was based on a single, nighttime, cross-ethnic eyewitness identification with no corroborating forensic evidence. At his trial, DeLunaÕs defense, that another man named Carlos had committed the crime, was not taken seriously. The lead prosecutor told the jury that the other Carlos, Carlos Hernandez, was a ÒphantomÓ of DeLunaÕs imagination. In upholding the death penalty on appeal, both the state and federal courts concluded the same thing: Carlos Hernandez did not exist. The evidence the Columbia team uncovered reveals that Hernandez not only existed but was well known to the police and prosecutors. He had a long history of violent crimes similar to the one for which DeLuna was executed. Families of both Carloses mistook photos of each for the other, and HernandezÕs violence continued after DeLuna was put to death. This book and its website (thewrongcarlos.net) reproduce law-enforcement, crime lab, lawyer, court, social service, media, and witness records, as well as court transcripts, photographs, radio traffic, and audio and videotaped interviews, documenting one of the most comprehensive investigations into a criminal case in U.S. history. The result is eye-opening yet may not be unusual. Faulty eyewitness testimony, shoddy legal representation, and prosecutorial misfeasance continue to put innocent people at risk of execution. The principal investigators conclude with novel suggestions for improving accuracy among the police, prosecutors, forensic scientists, and judges.