SOC216H5 Lecture 4: Sociology of Law Week 4
22 Feb 2019
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The conventional answer is a failure of democratic politics. I emphasized that punishments, to be politically acceptable, must express authoritative moral condemnation. Let"s see future bad guys watch these people fry right here on television (phil donahue): why executions are inherently public (by austin sarat, whether televised or not, an execution is always public by its very nature. The death of a condemned person is in no sense just his own death; it is also a killing by the state. They are also public in the sense that their conduct is regulated by public norms. And, ghoulish or not, the public is always present at an execution as an authorizing audience, unseeing and unseen, but present nonetheless: every time the state kills, it kills in our name. The seemingly bureaucratic act of a few state officials is our deed as well.
