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4 J. Offender Counseling, Services & Rehab. 5 (1979-1980)

handle is hein.journals/wjor4 and id is 1 raw text is: EDITORIAL PUNITIVE INSTITUTIONS UNDER STRESS: Bad Times Ahead? Except for the repeated and severe prison riots of the early 1950s and the early 1970s-both concentrated in time- there has been no period in this century more illustrative of the con- tradictions concerning criminal offender policies-lack of broad so- cial agreement regarding correctional philosophy, inadequacy of leadership, and plain confusion in the field-as the first six months of 1979. Ending a 12-year unofficial moratorium on capital punishment, a convicted murderer was involuntarily executed in Florida's death house before mid-1979. Unlike previous capital cases where the Su- preme Court attempted to move ahead in the century long debate on the issue as to whether the death penalty constitutes cruel and un- usual punishment and on the issue of precise standards for determin- ing the ultimate sentence, the Court declined to review the Florida case. Except for a relatively small number of protests, the issue of capital punishment is no longer the predictably volatile concern of a few years back. Many state legislatures with execution laws similar to Florida's still resist carrying out the death penalty in the belief that the laws would not sustain a court challenge. In other states, gover- nors have declared that during their tenures in office, they will either veto capital punishment legislation or commute death sentences to maximum prison terms. A bizarre sideline of the Florida execution: the attending physician twice informed the electrocutioner that the first two jolts did not end the convict's life. A few people, not many, are now asking at what point a physician's oath to heal may properly yield to the growing mood for official killing. Another stressful event of the half year, one that augurs poorly for Journal ofofO ender Counseling. Services& Rehabilitation, Vol. 4(I). Fall 1979 ©1979byThc Haworth Press. All righls reserved. 5