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The Death Penalty: An American History |
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You Are Here: Home > History Books > American History > Item 283
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The Death Penalty: An American History
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by Stuart Banner
Sales Rank: 379408
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List Price: $18.50
$18.50
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on 6-23-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Paperback with 408 pages
Published by: Harvard University Press; New Ed edition March 31, 2003
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0674010833
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0674010833
Book Dimensions:
9.1 x 6 x 1 inches
Weighs: 1 pounds
Product Review
Stuart Banner's The Death Penalty is a richly detailed overview of American attitudes toward and implementation of capital punishment throughout its past. Banner decries what he sees as today's prevailing "smug condescension" to history, and states that executing a fellow human in the 17th and 18th centuries, though exponentially more common than today, was "just as momentous" an act. He traces changing technology and venues as well as the relatively constant arguments--legal, philosophical, and religious--of proponents and opponents. The book is rich with fascinating sidelights, among them the chilling practice of "symbolic" executions, the idea that dissections, viewed as a sort of punishment beyond death, were thought to act as deterrents to capital crime, and how the rise of newspapers as a mass medium hastened, in part, the demise of public hangings. The Death Penaltyis free of polemic and cant, admirably disinterested, and at once rigorous yet thoroughly accessible. --H. O'Billovich
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
In this well-researched and clear account, Washington University law professor Banner charts how and why this country went from having one of the world's mildest punitive systems to one of its harshest. In colonial America, criminals were hanged before large crowds in elaborate rituals that included sermons and prayers. All serious crimes robbery, arson, counterfeiting were capital offenses. But gradually, opposition to execution took root and, by the 1780s, it was considered by many to be a feudal relic incompatible with human progress; resulting penal reforms significantly reduced the use of capital punishment. By the Civil War, a prolonged debate led three northern states to abolish it, while the rest limited its application to murderers (the South's opinions on the matter remained more or less unchanged). As 19th-century "elites" withdrew from the crowds at public executions, the mood turned against them altogether; when executions were moved inside prison walls, they no longer presented the public with their traditional (and gruesome) brand of deterrence. But, as Banner shows, in the last few decades, the number of executions has surged. Today, he contends, the death penalty is "an emotionally charged political issue administered within a legal framework so unworkable that it satisfie[s] no one." (12 halftones, not seen) (Mar.)Forecast: If booksellers shelve this with the recently reissued Legal Lynching by Jesse Jackson Sr. and Jesse Jackson Jr. and Ivan Solotaroff's The Last Face You'll Ever See, they'll see increased sales, for those impassioned on the subject will seek them out. And with its original and sound research, this volume should have staying power.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Reader Reviews
This review is from: The Death Penalty: An American History (Hardcover)
Most books that are written about the death penalty tend to be partisan either filled with impassioned criticisms or passionate defences. This book is unusual as it is measured and objective. It is not a long book but it looks at a surprisingly large number of issues not only about the penalty itself but the ritual around it, the means used and a detailed explanation of the constitutional argument that led to its abolition and its resurrection... In describing the way the death penalty is administered the one interesting point made by the author is the discrepancy in its implementation. Almost all of the death penalty cases occur in the Southern States. There appear to be a number of reasons for this one being the fact that these states have the highest rates of murder, the only crime which realistically now attracts the penalty. The author however makes the point that another key factor in the geographic distribution of the death penalty is the way that defendants are represented. In the North the state funds public defenders officers which provide a high standard of legal representation. This means that during the penalty phase of the trial care is undertaken to call evidence that will lead to imprisonment rather than execution. In the South the system of providing legal assistance is for the state to pay private lawyers to undertake death penalty cases. The fees are stingey and as a result defence lawyers are often have no experience or skill in running such cases. Mitigatory evidence is seldom called and the usual methods of arguing for a lesser penalty are not used. Capital cases in the South are littered with tales of incredibly incompetent defence lawyers. The writer appears to be a legal academic and the most interesting part of the book is the explanation of the constitutional arguments over the legality of the penalty. The explanation of the arguments over how it was argued that the penalty was cruel and unusual and the legislative changes which were used to overcome these arguments is excellent and makes a complex area easy to grasp. All in all an interesting book for those who wish to read about the subject.
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The Death Penalty: An American History
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