1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910457970703321

Titolo

The killing state : capital punishment in law, politics, and culture / / edited by Austin Sarat

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York, New York : , : Oxford University Press, , 1999

©1999

ISBN

0-585-21168-X

9786610531936

1-280-53193-2

0-19-802827-X

1-4237-6321-1

0-19-534918-0

1-60256-742-5

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (276 p.)

Disciplina

364.66/0973

Soggetti

Capital punishment - United States

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Includes index.

"This book emerged out of a conference entitled "Capital punishment in law and culture" held at Amherst College in April, 1997"--Title page verso.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Contents; Contributors; Capital Punishment as a Fact of Legal, Political, and Cultural Life: An Introduction; I. THE POLITICS OF STATE KILLING; 1. After the Terror: Mortality, Equality, Fraternity; 2. Abolishing the Death Penalty Even for the Worst Murderers; 3. A Juridical Frankenstein, Or Death in the Hands of the State; 4. Tokens of Our Esteem: Aggravating Factors in the Era of Deregulated Death Penalties; II. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AND LEGAL VALUES; 5. ""Always More to Do"": Capital Punishment and the (De)Composition of Law

6. The Executioner's Dissonant Song: On Capital Punishment and American Legal Values7. Selling a Quick Fix for Boot Hill: The Myth of Justice Delayed in Death Cases; III. THE DEATH PENALTY AND THE CULTURE OF RESPONSIBILITY; 8. The Will, Capital Punishment, and



Cultural War; 9. Beyond Intention: A Critique of the ""Normal"" Criminal Agency, Responsibility, and Punishment in American Death Penalty Jurisprudence; 10. The Cultural Life of Capital Punishment: Responsibility and Representation in Dead Man Walking and Last Dance; Index;

Sommario/riassunto

Collecting work by several notable scholars, this book explains why the US still clings to capital punishment long after other democratic nations have abandoned it. It also exhibits a new way of thinking about state killing that goes beyond abstract moral argument and narrow policy debate to assess its impact on our legal system, its powerful symbolic appeal, and its place in today's ""culture wars.""