How U.S. allies influence American death penalty policies

The overarching purpose of this study is to expand the disciplines understanding of capital punishment implementation and the factors that influence bureau policymaking decisions, and to explore and analyze foreign impacts on domestic death penalty policies to establish a functioning nexus between expressions of foreign policy preferences, and how those expressions can be articulated through U.S. domestic policy implementation. Establishing a causal connection between foreign actions and domestic death penalty policy would be a disciplinary innovation, and while many studies across academic disciplines as diverse as criminology, political science and law, have undertaken both qualitative and quantitative assessments of U.S. death penalty policy, none has posited a case study analysis of a multifaceted approach to shaping death penalty policy through international forces, using capital cases that have been prosecuted in the United States and involving Mexican nationals, as a basis for a case study model. This singular academic contribution should serve as a primer to foreign actors who seek to explore ways in which death penalty policies can be positively impacted.