The Killing State

Twenty-five years ago, the Supreme Court temporarily halted capital punishment. This collection brings together the work of eleven writers to discuss the meaning of execution in American law and culture. It provides historical background on the death penalty and brings together arguments about the morality of capital punishment with arguments about its meaning. It considers whether, as many have argued, the death penalty by way of example causes the very violence to which it is supposed to respond. With contributors such as Hugh Bedau, Frank Zimring, and Jonathan Simon, it offers a range of prominent voices to the continuing debate on capital punishment.