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This in-depth yet highly accessible books provides compelling human stories that illuminate the thorny legal issues behind the most noteworthy capital cases. In 1969, the Supreme Court justices cast votes in secret that could have signaled the end of the death penalty. Later, the justices'resolve began to unravel. Why? What were the consequences for the rule of law and for the life at stake in the case? These are some of the fascinating questions answered in Murder at the Supreme Court. Veteran journalists Martin Clancy and Tim O'Brien not only pull back the curtain of secrecy that surrounds Supreme Court deliberations but also reveal the crucial links between landmark capital-punishment cases and the lethal crimes at their root. The authors take readers to crime scenes, holding cells, jury rooms, autopsy suites, and execution chambers to provide true-life reporting on vicious criminals and the haphazard judicial system that punishes them. The cases reported are truly'the cases that made the law.'They have defined the parameters that judges must follow for a death sentence to stand up on appeal. Beyond the obvious questions regarding the dubious deterrent effect of capital punishment or whether retribution is sufficient justification for the death penalty (regardless of the heinous nature of the crimes committed), the cases and crimes examined in this book raise other confounding issues: Is lethal injection really more humane than other methods of execution? Should a mentally ill killer be forcibly medicated to make him'well enough'to be executed? How does the race of the perpetrator or the victim influence sentencing? Is heinous rape a capital crime? How young is too young to be executed?

Harnessing Hibernate is an ideal introduction to the popular framework that lets Java developers work with information from a relational database easily and efficiently. Databases are a very different world than Java objects, and they often involve people with different skills and specializations. With Hibernate, bridging these two worlds is significantly easier, and with this book, you can get up to speed with Hibernate quickly.Rather than present you with another reference, Harnessing Hibernate lets you explore the system, from download and configuration through a series of projects that demonstrate how to accomplish a variety of practical goals. The new edition of this concise guide walks you through Hibernate's primary features, which include mapping from Java classes to database tables, and from Java data types to SQL data types. You will also learn about Hibernate's data query and retrieval facilities, and much more.By reading and following along with the examples, you can get your own Hibernate environment set up quickly and start using it for real-world tasks right away. Harnessing Hibernate teaches you how to:Perform Object/Relational mappingWork with persistent data from Java codeWork with groups and relationships between objectsExtend Hibernate's rich type support for your own needsSimplify query creation using criteria and examplesUse the Hibernate Query Language (HQL) and understand how it differs from SQLUse Hibernate in conjunction with SpringUse Hibernate in conjunction with other packages, such as the Stripes web framework and the Eclipse IDEOnce you're past the first few chapters, you can jump to topics that you find particularly interesting or relevant. All background material and explanations of how Hibernate works and why is in the service of a focused task. Source code can be downloaded from the book's website.If using SQL is an uncomfortable chore, Harnessing Hibernate offers you an effective and trouble-free method for working with the information you store in your applications.