| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 96.1

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 96.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Murder and the Death Penalty in Massachusetts. By Alan Rogers. (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2008. xviii, 494 pp. Paper, $34.95, ISBN 978-1-55849-633-0.)

This excellent study by Alan Rogers traces the history of murder and the death penalty from the earliest days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony to the present era. Rogers argues persuasively that from the earliest days of the colony Puritan leaders adopted procedures to deal with capital offenses that differed from English common law and the practices of other American colonies. Persons accused of capital offenses had to be indicted by a grand jury; if indicted they had a right to see the indictment, a right to legal defense, a right to challenge jurors, and a right to appeal the decision to the General Court (the state legislature). These practices became institutionalized, and by the time of the American Revolution Massachusetts had in place procedures that laid the basis for substantial protection of the rights of the accused.

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