Capital Punishment Research Resources in HeinOnline

Case Law, Exploring HeinOnline, History of Capital Punishment, Preview of United States Supreme Court Cases
Shannon Furtak

Capital punishment is one of the most controversial issues facing global society, both today and historically. Many countries have abolished the death penalty. Those which have not include the United States, China, India, Japan, and most Islamic states. The United States is the only Western nation still using capital punishment.

Proponents of the death penalty argue that it is a deterrent to crime, prevents offenders from committing further crimes, and is a tool prosecutors and police can use when plea bargaining with defendants. Opponents believe capital punishment is inhumane, discriminates against poor and minority defendants, and does not actually deter crime.

Death Penalty Fast Facts

  • Since 1976…

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NEW! Updated Search Syntax And Tips and Tricks from HeinOnline Gurus

Searching, Tips and Tricks, What's New
Lauren Mattiuzzo

Last month, we tweaked our proximity searching thanks to feedback from a tweet! Users can now use w/# search syntax for proximity searching, which allows people to seamlessly change between interfaces. Today’s post is going to cover all the ins and outs of searching in HeinOnline, including new search syntax options that were recently implemented. By the time you finish this blog post, you’ll be an expert in searching!

New Search Syntax

We are excited to announce that new search syntax options are now available…

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New Legislative Histories Now Available!

U.S. Federal Legislative History, What's New
Lauren Mattiuzzo

HeinOnline’s U.S. Federal Legislative History Library includes comprehensive federal legislative histories published by the U.S. Government Publishing Office as well as private publishers. Users can research legislative intent behind major public laws and follow the progression of a bill from its introduction to its passage. We recently added two new legislative histories to this database, and we want to make sure you didn’t miss them! See what’s new in today’s blog.

FOIA Oversight and Implementation Act of 2016

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The Times They Are a-Changin’

Current Events, Searching
Lauren Mattiuzzo

Kid Rock, the Beach Boys and Mike Love were among some of the musicians who joined President Donald Trump at the signing ceremony earlier this month for the Music Modernization Act (MMA). This bill was unanimously passed through the House and Senate prior to reaching the President’s desk. MMA was designed to fix copyright issues revolving around digital steaming services such as Apple Music, Spotify and Pandora. The new digital wave of streaming made music more accessible; however, artists were losing out on revenue because of this new technology. MMA revamps Section 115 of the U.S. Copyright Act and is a combination of three bills previously introduced in Congress…

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Hot Off the Press: New HeinOnline Search Option

Enhancements, Searching, What's New
Shannon Furtak

HeinOnline “F T W/”

HeinOnline takes user feedback very seriously. Whenever possible, we implement suggestions we receive. Recently, HeinOnline user @legalkm tweeted about proximity searching:

We immediately looked into whether we could add “w/#” search syntax for proximity searching to HeinOnline’s capabilities, because we don’t like to see sad faces in the same tweet as a reference to HeinOnline…

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NOW AVAILABLE: U.S. Congressional Serial Set!

Searching, U.S. Congressional Serial Set, What's New
Lauren Mattiuzzo

YOU ASKED FOR IT. NOW IT’S HERE!

The much-anticipated release of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set in HeinOnline (Phase I) is here! This database is included at no additional charge for HeinOnline Academic subscribers, Core+ subscribers, and subscribers of HeinOnline’s U.S. Congressional Documents.

The Serial Set is an enormous undertaking, which is why it’s being released in phases.

Included in Phase I:

  • Complete indexing of the more than 17,000 volumes of the Serial Set
  • Full 40-year (1978-2018) content archive in HeinOnline’s image-based PDF format
  • Complete coverage of the American State Papers
  • 86% of the Serial Set in HeinOnline or via HathiTrust Digital Library
  • 27% of the volumes in HeinOnline’s image-based PDF format

Moving forward…

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NAFTA: Reviewed, Revised, Renamed

Current Events, Searching
Lauren Mattiuzzo

Changes are on the rise for the nearly 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the United States, Mexico, and Canada. These three countries met and negotiated a last-minute agreement, which revised and could ultimately replace, NAFTA. This new agreement would be called USMCA, standing for the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and President Enrique Pena Nieto and are expected to sign the deal by the end of November, when it will then be passed to Congress to approve. Read below for a brief summary of USMCA negotiation terms.

New Negotiating Terms

Got Milk…

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Do Not Pass Go: Will Amazon’s Monopoly Be Subject to Regulations?

Current Events, Searching
Lauren Mattiuzzo

Today there are more than 100 million Amazon Prime members worldwide. This American electronic commerce and cloud computing company was started in 1994 by Jeff Bezos in Seattle, Washington. Although it began as an online bookstore, it now sells video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, toys, jewelry, and more. Users can stream Oscar-winning movies and music, as well as listen to audio books. Amazon’s low prices and fast delivery are raising the bar for competitors and keeping customers happy. This past month, Amazon reached $1 trillion in value, falling second only to Apple. But, should the changing economy be subject to new rules? Lina Khan thinks so…

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Most-Cited U.S. Supreme Court Cases in HeinOnline: Part III

Exploring HeinOnline, ScholarCheck, U.S. Supreme Court
Lauren Mattiuzzo

Almost ten years ago, we blogged about how we applied scholarly indexing to the U.S. Supreme Court Library. Then, a few months later we announced that we added links for users to access the articles which cite cases in HeinOnline, otherwise known as Hein’s ScholarCheck. Check out this snippet of our old interface from 2008!

What’s new since our last two blog posts? We have drastically updated our interface, and not only can users access articles which cite a case, but they can also access cases which cite a case! Fast forward nearly ten years, and let’s now take a look at the top 50 most-cited U.S…

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EXCITING UPDATE: WORLD CONSTITUTIONS ILLUSTRATED INCLUDES NEW CUBA CONSTITUTION

What's New, World Constitutions Illustrated
Shannon Furtak

We’re pleased to share a brand-new and extremely important update to HeinOnline’s World Constitutions Illustrated database.

From the World Constitutions Illustrated Database Editor, Jefri J. Ruchti:

Documents added September 2018: 2
Number of countries supplemented: 1

Cuba

On July 22, the National Assembly of the People’s Power adopted a draft text for a new constitution for Cuba. We include the official Spanish edition of the text and our own corresponding translation.

The text now undergoes a period of public discussion and comment from August 13 to November 15…

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