Collections : [National Death Penalty Archive]
National Death Penalty Archive
Researchers, writers, activists, and records on capital punishment in the United States.
The National Death Penalty Archive (NDPA) is a partnership between the University at Albany Libraries and the Capital Punishment Research Initiative (CPRI) at the University's School of Criminal Justice. In 1999, researchers at the School of Criminal Justice formally established the CPRI. Its overarching goals were research and education -- initiate capital punishment research activities, facilitate collaboration among researchers, and make findings and information available to legal and criminal justice policymakers, practitioners, and the public. One of the original goals of the CPRI was to establish and maintain a collection of archival materials documenting the important history of capital punishment, and to provide resources for historical scholarship. This growing collection of archival materials is housed in the M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives, which is located in the University's state of the art Science Library. Open since 1999, the new archival repository includes climate-controlled storage for more than 25,000 cubic feet. The following collections have been acquired for the NDPA through the collaborative efforts of the CPRI and the University Libraries; work is continuing to build this important link to the history of capital punishment in the United States.
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Start Over You searched for: Online Content Online Content Remove constraint Online Content: Online Content Collecting Area National Death Penalty Archive Remove constraint Collecting Area: National Death Penalty Archive Date range 1900 to 1924 Remove constraint Date range: <span class="from" data-blrl-begin="1900">1900</span> to <span class="to" data-blrl-end="1924">1924</span>Search Results
Subject Files, 1803-2001, Undated 6.5 cubic ft.
The Watt Espy subject files contain a variety of materials that supplement information in the other series without necessarily being directly related. Researchers will find background information on the history of capital punishment, death penalty statistics, and a few files on crime in general. There are folders devoted to crime and punishment in many individual states and territories, though not all of them are represented. The subject files also contain information on the various methods of execution employed across the country, mainly hanging, gassing, electrocution, and lethal injection. Additionally, there are death penalty-related topics such as physician participation, editorial pieces dealing with ethics of capital punishment, execution of prisoners with low IQs, background materials on the death penalty in early America, and a few assorted death penalty research projects that Espy followed. There are also assorted photos, many of which feature inmates and prisons. Images of identified and unidentified individuals executed are presumed to be the ones that filled the walls of Espy's house.
Box 51 (4-subject files), Folder 3-5
Box 3 (9-reprint series), Folder 15
Advocacy, 1977-2007, Undated 4.5 cubic ft.
Watt Espy amassed materials related to a variety of organizations advocating against capital punishment, for better prison conditions, for human rights, and for an improved and unbiased criminal justice system. The groups vary and may be secular or religious, national, statewide or local. Materials in this series include newsletters, execution alerts, appeals, meeting minutes, and brochures. In some instances, it is possible to determine that Espy was active within or supported a particular organization as his name appears in meeting minutes or related papers.