archive

Reasons to rethink the death penalty

Moshik Temkin (Harvard): The Great Divergence: The Death Penalty in the United States and the Failure of Abolition in Transatlantic Perspective. “There is blood, a lot of blood, very red blood”: Justin E.H. Smith on the death penalty in crisis. The cruel and unusual execution of Clayton Lockett: Jeffrey Stern on the untold story of Oklahoma’s botched lethal injection — and America’s intensifying fight over the death penalty. Lethal injection was supposed to be a cleaner, more humane version of capital punishment — over the past five years, it has become a messy, largely unmonitored testing ground for toxic drugs. Teaching philosophy on death row: Albert W. Dzur interviews Lisa Guenther. Revenge killing: Rachel Aviv on race and the death penalty in a Louisiana parish. Prosecutor Dale Cox’s goal: “Kill more people”. Emily Bazelon on the law that keeps people on death row despite flawed trials. Stephanie Mencimer on 87 reasons to rethink the death penalty: Execution was meant for the worst of the worst — research shows that’s far from the reality. Scott Lemieux on why the American death penalty system is broken.