From Lynch Mobs to the Killing State: Race and the Death Penalty in America

The Charles Hamilton Houston Institute Series on Race and Justice

by Austin Sarat (Editor), Charles J. Ogletree Jr. (Editor)

Situates the linkage between race and the death penalty in the history of the U.S.

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.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Law, Race

Paperback

First published May 1, 2006

About the author

Austin Sarat is William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, Amherst College.

Reviews

[Heidi Boghosian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charles Ogletree and Austin Sarat have assembled an elegant compendium of essays written by sociologists, historians, criminologists, and lawyers. The essays starkly reveal how this country’s death penalty has its roots in lynchings, and how it operates to sustain a racist agenda.

See my full review in The Federal Lawyer magazine in 2007: http://www.fedbar.org/Resources_1/Fed...

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

like the new jim crow, i read this for my term paper. like the new jim crow, it was eye opening and helped me to understand exactly what the criminal justice system is to black men. although written more than a decade ago, it is clear that not much has changed. i definitely think that many more people need to read this book, especially if you want to understand what the death penalty is to black men.