Contents

Chapters in this book

1. Front Matter i
2. Contents vii
3. Acknowledgments ix
4. Introduction
5. Adjudicating Homicide: The Legal Framework and Social Norms 3
6. Race
7. Cross-Cultural “Murther” and Retribution in Colonial New England 33
8. Jim Crow Justice, the Richmond Planet, and the Murder of Lucy Pollard 61
9. Justice Denied: Race and the 1982 Murder Trial of Mumia Abu-Jamal 87
10. Mental Competency
11. Murder and Minors: Changing Standards in the Criminal Law of Connecticut, 1650–1853 113
12. Murder and Madness: The Ambiguity of Moral Insanity in Nineteenth-Century Connecticut 135
13. Mad Men and Wronged Women: Murder and the Insanity Defense in Massachusetts, 1844–2000 155
14. Gender and Class Norms
15. Murder by Inches: Shakers, Family, and the Death of Elder Caleb Dyer 185
16. “He Has Ravished my Poor, Simple, Innocent Wife!”: Exploring the Meaning of Honor in the Murder Trials of George W. Cole 207
17. Bodies of Evidence: Inquest Photography in the Trial of Lizzie Borden 235
18. Contributors 271
19. Index 273
20. Index of Cases Cited in Text 279