E-Book Overview
Why does the United States continue to employ the death penalty when fifty other developed democracies have abolished it? Why does capital punishment become more problematic each year? How can the death penalty conflict be resolved? In The Contradictions of American Capital Punishment, Frank Zimring reveals that the seemingly insoluble turmoil surrounding the death penalty reflects a deep and long-standing division in American values, a division that he predicts will soon bring about the end of capital punishment in our country. On the one hand, execution would seem to violate our nation's highest legal principles of fairness and due process. It sets us increasingly apart from our allies and indeed is regarded by European nations as a barbaric and particularly egregious form of American exceptionalism. On the other hand, the death penalty represents a deeply held American belief in violent social justice that sees the hangman as an agent of local control and safeguard of community values. Zimring uncovers the most troubling symptom of this attraction to vigilante justice in the lynch mob. He shows that the great majority of executions in recent decades have occurred in precisely those Southern states where lynchings were most common a hundred years ago. It is this legacy, Zimring suggests, that constitutes both the distinctive appeal of the death penalty in the United States and one of the most compelling reasons for abolishing it. Impeccably researched and engagingly written, Contradictions in American Capital Punishment casts a clear new light on America's long and troubled embrace of the death penalty.
E-Book Content
The Contradictions of
American Capital Punishment
Selected Titles STUDIES IN CRIME AND PUBLIC POLICY Michael Tonry and Norval Morris, General Editors The American Street Gang Malcolm Klein Malign Neglect Michael Tonry Hate Crimes: Criminal Law and Identity Politics James B. Jacobs and Kimberly Potter American Youth Violence Franklin E. Zimring Gun Violence: The Real Costs Philip J. Cook and Jens Ludwig Punishment and Democracy: Three Strikes and You're Out in California Franklin E. Zimring, Gordon Hawkins, and Sam Kamin Maconochie’s Gentlemen: The Story of Norfolk Island and the Roots of Modern Prison Reform Norval Morris Can Gun Control Work? James B. Jacobs
The Contradictions of
American Capital
Punishment
Franklin E. Zimring
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Copyright © 2003 by Oxford University Press, Inc. First published by Oxford University Press, Inc., 2003 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com First issued as an Oxford University Press paperback, 2004 ISBN 0-19-517820-3 Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. The Library of Congress has catalogued the cloth edition as follows: Zimring, Franklin E. The contradictions of American capital punishment / by Franklin E. Zimring. p. cm. — (Studies in crime and public policy) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-19-515236-0 Capital punishment—United States. I. Title. II. Series. HV8699.U5 Z563 2003 364.33'0973—dc21 2002012490 135798642 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
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Contents
Preface
ix
Acknowledgments
xi
I. Divergent Trends
1
1. The Pecu