Since 1976, over forty percent of prisoners executed in American jails have been African American or Hispanic. This trend shows little evidence of diminishing, and follows a larger pattern of the violent criminalization of African American populations that has marked the country's history of punishment.In a bold attempt to tackle the looming question of how and why the connection between race and the death penalty has been so strong throughout American history, Ogletree and Sarat headline an interdisciplinary cast of experts in reflecting on this disturbing issue. Insightful original essays approach the topic from legal, historical, cultural, and social science perspectives to show the ways that the death penalty is racialized, the places in the death penalty process where race makes a difference, and the ways that meanings of race in the United States are constructed in and through our practices of capital punishment.From Lynch Mobs to the Killing State not only uncovers the ways that race influences capital punishment, but also attempts to situate the linkage between race and the death penalty in the history of this country, in particular the history of lynching. In its probing examination of how and why the connection between race and the death penalty has been so strong throughout American history, this book forces us to consider how the death penalty gives meaning to race as well as why the racialization of the death penalty is uniquely American.
AcknowledgmentsIntroduction Charles J. Ogletree, Jr., and Austin SaratPart I : The Meaning and Signi?cance of Race in the Culture of Capital Punishment1 Capital Punishment as Legal Lynching? Timothy V. Kaufman-Osborn2 Making Race Matter in Death Matters Charles J. Ogletree, Jr.3 Traces of Slavery: Race and the Death Penalty in Historical Perspective Stuart BannerPart II : Race and the Death Penalty Process4 The Role of Victim's Race and Geography on Death Sentencing: Some Recent Data from Illinois Michael L. Radelet and Glenn L. Pierce5 Death in "Whiteface": Modern Race Minstrels, O?cial Lynching, and the Culture of American Apartheid Benjamin Fleury-Steiner6 Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Life-and-Death Decision Making: Lessons from Laypersons in an Experimental Setting Mona LynchPart III : Race, Politics, and the Death Penalty7 Discrimination, Death, and Denial: The Tolerance of Racial Discrimination in In?iction of the Death Penalty Stephen B. Bright8 The Rhetoric of Race in the "New Abolitionism" Austin SaratContributors Index
