The Cultural Lives of Capital Punishment: Comparative Perspectives (The Cultural Lives of Law)

361 Pages·2005·1.03 MB·English

by  Austin Sarat, Christian Boulanger

The Cultural Lives
Capital Punishment:
Comparative Perspectives
Austin Sarat
Christian Boulanger
Editors
Stanford University Press
The Cultural Lives of Capital Punishment
THE CULTURAL LIVES OF LAW
A series edited by Austin Sarat
The Cultural Lives of
Capital Punishment
Comparative Perspectives
Edited by
AUSTIN SARAT
CHRISTIAN BOULANGER
S TA N F O R D U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S S
Stanford, California 2005
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
© 2005 by the Board of Trustees of the
Leland Stanford Junior University
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system
without the prior written permission of Stanford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The cultural lives of capital punishment : comparative perspectives /
edited by Austin Sarat and Christian Boulanger.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 0-8047-5233-8 (cloth : alk. paper) —
isbn 0-8047-5234-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Capital punishment—Cross-cultural studies. I. Sarat, Austin.
II. Boulanger, Christian.
hv8694.c77 2005
364.66—dc22
2005003157
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-
quality paper
Original Printing 2005
Last figure below indicates year of this printing:
14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05
Typeset at Stanford University Press in 10/14.5 Minion
To my children—Lauren, Emily, Benjamin—with love and hope (AS)
This book is also dedicated to the memory of Clay Peterson and Johnny Martinez
Johnny Martinez, 29, was executed in May 2002, by lethal injection in
Huntsville, Texas, USA. He was sentenced for the robbery and murder, in July
1993, of Clay Peterson, a clerk at a convenience store in Corpus Christi. There is
strong evidence that his legal representation in the critical early stages of the
trial was inadequate. Despite the fact that Johnny had turned himself over to the
police shortly after the crime and had been remorseful ever since, the State
believed that he was a danger to society. After Johnny Martinez killed Clay
Peterson, the State, in the name of the People, killed Johnny Martinez. He was
pronounced dead at 6:30 p.m, May 22, 2002.
Acknowledgments
This book is the result of a genuine collaboration, one of those special occa-
sions in academic life when one feels oneself part of a real community of schol-
ars. For helping to forge that community we thank our very talented group of
contributors who have generously shared their work with us. We would also
like to acknowledge the Law & Society Association for providing an intellectual
space in which our work could be nourished. We are grateful to Amherst Col-
lege for providing support and to Amanda Moran, our editor at Stanford Uni-
versity Press, for her interest in, and enouragement of, our project.
Contents
Contributors xi
1. Putting Culture into the Picture: Toward a Comparative Analysis
of State Killings 1
christian boulanger and austin sarat
Part I. Civilization and Punishment: Self and Other in
Europe and the Americas
2. Nineteenth-Century Executions as Performances of Law, Death,
and Civilization 49
jürgen martschukat
3. Seed of Abolition: Experience and Culture in the Desire to End
Capital Punishment in Mexico, 1841–1857 69
patrick timmons
4. The Cultural Lives of Capital Punishment in the United States 92
judith randle
5. European Identity and the Mission Against the Death Penalty
in the United States 112
ev i girling
6. Crime and Punishment / Self versus Other: The Cultural Life of
Capital Punishment in European and American Film 129
louise t yler