2. Find Sources

Once you have reviewed the assignment and the requirements, you want to search websites, books and databases below for potential sources you can use to get information to support your view on this assignment. Try to find sources that provide evidence to support your opinion. If you need help, ask a librarian.

Recommended Websites

Purdue University Owl Bluebook Citation for Legal Materials
This Purdue University guide to citing information using Bluebook style.
Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center
This website lets you search by US Supreme Court case and includes opinion summaries, briefs, oral argument audio, and resources that provide a panoramic view of each case in its context.
Supreme Court of United States Website
This is the official website for the Supreme Court which lists their cases and the decisions in those cases.
Famous Trials
This site was created by professor Douglas O. Linder at University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.
Justice 101 from Department of Justice
This website from the Department of Justice gives background information for students to learn more about the legal justice system.

Yesterday's Monsters by Hadar Aviram
Call Number: E-Book
ISBN: 0520965280
Publication Date: 2020-02-18
1969, the world was shocked by a series of murders committed by Charles Manson and his followers. Although the defendants were sentenced to death, their sentences were commuted to life with parole in 1972; since 1978, they have been regularly attending parole hearings. Today all of the living defendants remain behind bars. Relying on nearly fifty years of parole hearing transcripts, as well as interviews and archival materials, Hadar Aviram invites readers into the opaque world of the California parole process.
Crimes and Trials of the Century by Steven Chermak (Editor); Frankie Y. Bailey (Editor)
Call Number: E-Book and Giles Campus Ref. KF221 .P6 C75 2007
ISBN: 9780313341090
Publication Date: 2007-10-30
Most major crimes of the 20th century including: Sacco-Vanzetti, Leopold and Loeb, Scottsboro Boys, Lindbergh baby, Emmett Till, Sam Sheppard, Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, Central Park 5. Rodney King, OJ Simpson, Susan Smith, and Scott Peterson plus more.
Great American Trials
Call Number: E-Book
Publication Date: 2003
E-book contains chapters on Lenny Bruce, Ted Bundy, Chicago Seven, Al Capone, Leo Frank, Bruno Hauptmann, Patty Hearst, Alger Hiss, Leopold and Loeb, Charles Manson, Sacco-Vanzetti, Scopes, Scottsboro, Sam Sheppard, Son of Sam, Julius & Ethel Rosenberg, and Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.
The print version of this book contains more trials, located at Giles REF KF220 .G74 1994 and Cherokee REF KF220.G74 1994.

Courting Death : The Supreme Court and Capital Punishment by Carol S. Steiker; Jordan M. Steiker
Call Number: E-Book
ISBN: 0674974859
Publication Date: 2016-11-07
Unique among Western democracies in refusing to eradicate the death penalty, the United States has attempted instead to reform and rationalize state death penalty practices through federal constitutional law. Courting Death traces the unusual and distinctive history of top-down judicial regulation of capital punishment under the Constitution and its unanticipated consequences for our time. In the 1960s and 1970s, in the face of widespread abolition of the death penalty around the world, provisions for capital punishment that had long fallen under the purview of the states were challenged in federal courts.
Capital Punishment by Information Plus
Call Number: E-Book
ISBN: 1410325415
Publication Date: 2018-10-12
This volume covers the history of capital punishment plus discussions of numerous court cases, legal decisions, and historical statistics. Also includes information about execution methods, minors and the death penalty, public attitudes, and capital punishment around the world.
Executing Freedom : the cultural life of capital punishment in the United States by Daniel LaChance
Call Number: E-Book and Giles Campus Stacks HV8699 .U5 L33 2016
ISBN: 9780226066691
Publication Date: 2016-11-18
Daniel LaChance shows how attitudes toward the death penalty have reflected broader shifts in Americans' thinking about the relationship between the individual and the state. Emerging from the height of 1970s disillusion, the simplicity and moral power of the death penalty became a potent symbol for many Americans of what government could do, and LaChance argues, fascinatingly, that it's the very failure of capital punishment to live up to that mythology that could prove its eventual undoing in the United States.
Debating the Death Penalty : should America have capital punishment? ; the experts on both sides make their best case by Hugo Adam Bedau
Call Number: E-Book
ISBN: 1280427744
Publication Date: 2023-01-01
Bedau and Cassell present a cutting edge look at the state of the death penalty in America, from the point of view of a judge, a district attorney, two defense lawyers, and two philosophers.

Search for Books & eBooks

Use the search box below to search the SCC Library Catalog for physical books (in one of our library locations) and eBooks. You can also open the Library Catalog or use the Advanced Search for more search options.

Databases / Articles

The following databases are the place to look for your supporting information.

Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints
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Viewpoint articles, topic overviews, full-text magazine, academic journal, and newspaper articles, primary source documents, statistics, images and podcasts, and links to Websites.
Issues & Controversies
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Features pro and con articles on more than 800 thought provoking topics in business, politics, government, education and popular culture. Updated weekly with links to a 12-year back file. Proxy Bypass
Points of View
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Contains a balance of materials from all viewpoints, including more than 1,300 main essays, leading political magazines from both sides of the aisle, newspapers, radio & TV news transcripts, primary source documents and reference books.Provided through EBSCO. Proxy Bypass
Gale Power Search
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A good general database that covers many subjects, especially current new issues. Has magazine, journal, and newspaper articles, as well as some reference material. Full-text content.
EBSCO General Databases
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Search 10 databases at once: Academic Search Premier, TOPICsearch, MasterFILE Premier, Military & Government Collection, MAS Ultra - School Edition, Vocational and Career Collection, Associates Programs Source, Newspaper Source Plus, GreenFILE, and News (AP, UPI, etc.). Proxy Bypass
Find journal, magazine and newspaper articles. Millions of full-text articles, many with images. Updated daily.