Yesterday, zoomed in from hot, sunny, mostly plague-free Canberra, where she teaches at Australian National University, Carolyn Strange was telling the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History a little about her new book The Death Penalty and Sex Murder in Canadian History.
She noted that while judges have long been sympathetic to men accused of sexual assault, men convicted of sex murders have historically had a strong likelihood of receiving the death penalty and low chances of having their sentence commuted.
She also reminded the audience that the death penalty is not really abolished. It's in abeyence -- and sex murders tend to bring the strongest calls for its return.
Two big books with blood-red covers.
