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Death Penalty Abolition

Justice Stevens Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens has written a powerful essay against the death penalty in the next edition of The New York Review of Books.  The essay was published tonight online and you can read it here.  Stevens' essay is actually a review of Peculiar Institution: America's Death Penalty in an Age of Abolition by David Garland. 

I admit that I've seen cases over the years where I quietly thought that I'd want to be the executioner.  Wesley Allan Dodd comes to mind.  There have been others, too.  But Stevens, in his essay, eloquently captures the primary reason I oppose the death penalty—our society's inability to justly administer the ultimate exercise of state power.  Read Stevens' argument for yourself.  See if you agree.  

Comments

2 responses to “Death Penalty Abolition”

  1. Jeff Forde Avatar
    Jeff Forde

    Great article – I think I’ll pick up the book!

    Reply
  2. Kirk Robbins Avatar
    Kirk Robbins

    Justice Stevens and the book he reviews deal with a mythical “American death penalty”, but what of Washington’s law, which Stevens never mentions? The argument in the book is about a much wider use than is available here — the extreme penalty is only available in extreme cases. There seems to be scant research as to whether statutes like ours produce the disproportionality which characterizes its use in other states, mostly in the South.
    Washington has executed five people since 1976, all men. Three of them (including Dodd) were of defendants who did not appeal their sentences. Nothing in Stevens’ review of Garland’s book addresses our situation or those in states with similar laws.

    Reply

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