The Killing State
Capital Punishment in Law, Politics, and Culture
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc
Published:7th Jun '01
Currently unavailable, currently targeted to be due back around 18th July 2025, but could change

Although the US Supreme Court temporarily halted capital punishment in the early 1970s, it has since returned with a vengeance. Today Americans live in a "killing state" in which the death penalty has become an important part of criminal justice policy, and sometimes a major factor in electoral politics. Bringing together the work of several prominent scholars, The Killing State helps explain why the USA clings tenaciously to capital punishment long after other democratic nations have abandoned it. The book signals the emergence of a new way of thinking about state killing that moves beyond abstract moral argument and narrow policy debate to assess its impact upon the US legal system, its powerful symbolic appeal, and its place in contemporary "culture wars."
"...an important and wide ranging cross section of current debate about the death penalty" Christopher Bennett, Comtemporary Political Theory 2003, 2.
"...fruitful reading for anyone interseted in the death penalty, state violence or the fole of punishment in our societies more generally" Christopher Bennett, Comtemporary Political Theory 2003, 2.
The papers in this collection represent an important and wide-ranging cross-section of current debate about the death penalty. These essays would make fruitful reading for anyone interested in the death penalty, state violence or the role of punishment in our societies more generally. this is a useful collection that will interest those working on many different aspects of state violence. * Contemporary Political Theory 2001, 1. *
committed collection of essays * Contemporary Review *
Austin Sarat has produced a valuable volume which provides a range of perspectives on institutionalized state violence. * Richard Wilson, Anthropological Theory, 1:1 *
This collection belongs in all libraries. * Choice *
This collection of essays brings us up to date on the vexatious problem of capital punishment ... these essays ... will keep us thinking well into the next century. * Bimonthly Review of Law Books *
ISBN: 9780195146028
Dimensions: 145mm x 226mm x 20mm
Weight: 403g
288 pages