When the State Kills: Capital Punishment and the American Condition

by Austin Sarat

Is capital punishment just? Does it deter people from murder? What is the risk that we will execute innocent people? These are the usual questions at the heart of the increasingly heated debate about capital punishment in America. In this bold and impassioned book, Austin Sarat seeks to change the terms of that debate. Capital punishment must be stopped, Sarat argues, because it undermines our democratic society.


Sarat unflinchingly exposes us to the realities of state killing. He examines its foundations in ideas about revenge and retribution. He takes us inside the courtroom of a capital trial, interviews jurors and lawyers who make decisions about life and death, and assesses the arguments swirling around Timothy McVeigh and his trial for the bombing in Oklahoma City. Aided by a series of unsettling color photographs, he traces Americans' evolving quest for new methods of execution, and explores the place of capital punishment in popular culture by examining such films as Dead Man Walking, The Last Dance, and The Green Mile.


Sarat argues that state executions, once used by monarchs as symbolic displays of power, gained acceptance among Americans as a sign of the people's sovereignty. Yet today when the state kills, it does so in a bureaucratic procedure hidden from view and for which no one in particular takes responsibility. He uncovers the forces that sustain America's killing culture, including overheated political rhetoric, racial prejudice, and the desire for a world without moral ambiguity. Capital punishment, Sarat shows, ultimately leaves Americans more divided, hostile, indifferent to life's complexities, and much further from solving the nation's ills. In short, it leaves us with an impoverished democracy.


The book's powerful and sobering conclusions point to a new abolitionist politics, in which capital punishment should be banned not only on ethical grounds but also for what it does to Americans and what we cherish.

Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy, Academic

360 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2001

About the author

Austin Sarat is William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, Amherst College.

Reviews

[Tom Mueller · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was raised with the knowledge that barring extreme circumstances, killing is wrong. Those circumstances involve the protection of one's life, or that of another. Taking another's life - by the state - is also committed as retribution to a wrong done, perceived or not. There can be no justification at any other than a personal level. It is also a very personal stance I hold that personal retribution Can be justified, in fact can be the only satisfying option, absolutely correct and just under extreme circumstances. In the absence of those extreme circumstances, taking a human life cannot be justified.
Of course, this premise precludes the correctness of war and state sanctioned homicide.

[Krista · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most important books I've ever read in the sociology of death. I had to read it for undergrad and it absolutely provided me with a foundation of non-emotive arguments against the death penalty beyond racism and classism (which are important arguments, but don't work for everyone). A fascinating meeting point of philosophy and sociology and it's just INCREDIBLY good.

[Becky Aitchison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. Using examples, both in history and film, this book really makes you think about the purposes of the death penalty, the reasons it is employed, and all of the paradoxes and flaws surrounding it. I would highly recommend this.

[David Tomlinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cutting exploration of the hypocrisy inherent in this country's administration of the death penalty. It will challenge your thinking ... no matter which side of the debate you support.

[Laurie Fosburgh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Satay raises some interesting points, but the books reads like a dissertation and rambles frequently.