1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910824346803321

Autore

Sarat Austin

Titolo

Gruesome spectacles : botched executions and America's death penalty / / Austin Sarat ; with Katherine Blumstein [and three others]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Stanford, California : , : Stanford Law Books, , 2014

©2014

ISBN

0-8047-9172-4

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (284 p.)

Disciplina

364.660973

Soggetti

Executions and executioners - United States - History

Capital punishment - United States - History

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Includes index.

Nota di contenuto

Contents; CHAPTER 1- The Mere Extinguishment of Life? Technological Efficiency, Botched Executions, and the Legitimacy of Capital Punishment in the United States; CHAPTER 2- A Clumsy, Inefficient, Inhuman Thing Death by Hanging; CHAPTER 3- When Science Fails Electrocution; CHAPTER 4- A Short and Unhappy History The Gas Chamber; CHAPTER 5- "How Enviable a Quiet Death" Lethal Injection; CHAPTER 6- Botched Executions and the Struggle to End Capital Punishment; Appendix A; Appendix B; Acknowledgments; A Note on Collaboration; Notes; Index

Sommario/riassunto

""How enviable a quiet death by lethal injection,"" wrote Justice Scalia, in a concurring opinion that denied review of a Texas death penalty case. But is it quiet? Renewed and vigorous debate over the death penalty has erupted as DNA testing has proven that many on death row are in fact innocent. In this debate, however, the guilty have been forgotten. In his new book, Gruesome Spectacles: Botched Executions and America's Death Penalty, renowned legal scholar Austin Sarat describes just how unquiet death by execution can be. If we assume a death row prisoner is guilty, how can we