Richard Moran

Professor of Sociology

Specialization: Criminology (the insanity defense, capital punishment, and the history of the electric chair); deviance; medical sociology
Richard Moran is a criminologist and a leading expert on the insanity defense, capital punishment, and the history of the electric chair. His book The Executioner's Current (Knopf, 2002) is the story of how the electric chair developed out of an effort by one nineteenth-century electric company to discredit the other.

"Moran is a wonderful storyteller," said Alan Dershowitz in comments on the book that he wrote for Random House. "The history of the electric chair—with rich A-C, D-C electric moguls trying to destroy each other's business—makes a fascinating tale of greed, opportunism and hypocrisy. Thomas Edison's attempt to make George Westinghouse into America's Dr. Guillotine is worth reading by everyone who cares about business ethics, the death penalty and justice."

The author of numerous articles and reviews, Moran has also served as a commentator for National Public Radio's Morning Edition and written op-eds for the Boston Globe, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, New York Times, and Newsweek.

In 1981, Moran published Knowing Right from Wrong: The Insanity Defense of Daniel McNaughtan, which was the first detailed study of the nineteenth-century case responsible for the modern insanity defense. He has testified before the Massachusetts legislature and at Congressional Judiciary Committee hearings.

Moran teaches Criminal Law and Justice, the Sociology of Medicine, and Social Problems.

News Links:

"The Presence of Malice," N.Y. Times, August 2, 2007

"Questioning Authority: Moran on Hussein," Communications Office, January 10, 2007

"Moran Comments on Insanity Case," Dallas Morning News, November 10, 2006

"Moran Comments on Moussaoui Trial," Washington Post, March 30, 2006

"Forbes Finds New Moran Book Fascinating," Forbes, November 25, 2002

"Moran to Discuss Invention of the Electric Chair," College Street Journal, November 1, 2002

"A Typical Murderer," College Street Journal, May 11, 2000