Peculiar Institution: America's Death Penalty in an Age of Abolition - History & Analysis of Capital Punishment in US Legal System | Perfect for Law Students, Researchers & Policy Makers
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Product Description
The U.S. death penalty is a peculiar institution, and a uniquely American one. Despite its comprehensive abolition elsewhere in the Western world, capital punishment continues in dozens of American states– a fact that is frequently discussed but rarely understood. The same puzzlement surrounds the peculiar form that American capital punishment now takes, with its uneven application, its seemingly endless delays, and the uncertainty of its ever being carried out in individual cases, none of which seem conducive to effective crime control or criminal justice. In a brilliantly provocative study, David Garland explains this tenacity and shows how death penalty practice has come to bear the distinctive hallmarks of America’s political institutions and cultural conflicts. America’s radical federalism and local democracy, as well as its legacy of violence and racism, account for our divergence from the rest of the West. Whereas the elites of other nations were able to impose nationwide abolition from above despite public objections, American elites are unable– and unwilling– to end a punishment that has the support of local majorities and a storied place in popular culture.In the course of hundreds of decisions, federal courts sought to rationalize and civilize an institution that too often resembled a lynching, producing layers of legal process but also delays and reversals. Yet the Supreme Court insists that the issue is to be decided by local political actors and public opinion. So the death penalty continues to respond to popular will, enhancing the power of criminal justice professionals, providing drama for the media, and bringing pleasure to a public audience who consumes its chilling tales. Garland brings a new clarity to our understanding of this peculiar institution– and a new challenge to supporters and opponents alike.
Customer Reviews
I just chanced upon this book. Justice Stevens had an article in the New York Review of Books (December, 2010), which turned out to be a review of this book, that was mentioned in the New York Times in an article on Justice Stevens and the death penalty. I'm about halfway though, and find Garland wrestling with one of the more difficult issues: why so many people in the United States are in favor of the death penalty. It's the kind of finely-textured analysis that I like, rich in detail while maintaining a clear overarching structure.I was surprised to see the review that criticized this book for ignoring issues about the rights of individual states. Garland seems clearly sensitive to this issue and his analysis is nuanced in regard to states, the death sentence, and executions. This is simply puzzling to me that someone would object on this level. It was this prior review that prompted me to write this--the first time I've written an Amazon review.Occasionally, I felt Garland was repetitive, announcing what he was going to do, telling the reading when he was doing it, and then summarizing by telling us he had done it.One minor quibble about the Kindle edition: I couldn't directly access the footnotes from the body of the text. I would have to bookmark my current location, go to the Table of Contents, read the notes, then go back to the menu to find my bookmark. In an age of hypertext, this seems like extraordinarily poor design. Given the high price of the book from HUP, this is particularly annoying.Incidentally, in the notes I would have liked to have seen some references to more recent empirical work on the race of victims in (a) charging crimes as capital offenses and (b) actual sentencing patterns.
