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James R. Acker
Distinguished Teaching Professor
School of Criminal Justice
Areas of expertise:
The death penalty; history of capital punishment in the United States and New York
The death penalty; history of capital punishment in the United States and New York
Campus e-mail:
Campus phone:
(518) 442-5317
Biography:
With New York, Kansas, Ohio and California all reviewing current state law regarding capital punishment, the death penalty remains one of the most bitterly disputed issues facing legislators and appellate courts across the U.S. James R. Acker has extensive scholarship in areas of the death penalty law and the judicial uses of social science research. He has co-authored a series of articles examining capital punishment legislation, which appeared in the Criminal Law Bulletin, and co-author, with Robert M. Bohm and Charles S. Lanier of America's Experiment With Capital Punishment (Carolina Academic Press, 1998). Acker, a Distinguished Teach Professor at the University at Albany's School of Criminal Justice, is co-director of the Capital Punishment Research Initiative (CPRI) at the UAlbany. Acker helped establish the National Death Penalty Archives (NDPA) at UAlbany in August 2005, a national repository of archival material devoted solely to the death penalty, at the University's M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives.
With New York, Kansas, Ohio and California all reviewing current state law regarding capital punishment, the death penalty remains one of the most bitterly disputed issues facing legislators and appellate courts across the U.S. James R. Acker has extensive scholarship in areas of the death penalty law and the judicial uses of social science research. He has co-authored a series of articles examining capital punishment legislation, which appeared in the Criminal Law Bulletin, and co-author, with Robert M. Bohm and Charles S. Lanier of America's Experiment With Capital Punishment (Carolina Academic Press, 1998). Acker, a Distinguished Teach Professor at the University at Albany's School of Criminal Justice, is co-director of the Capital Punishment Research Initiative (CPRI) at the UAlbany. Acker helped establish the National Death Penalty Archives (NDPA) at UAlbany in August 2005, a national repository of archival material devoted solely to the death penalty, at the University's M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives.
