Is the Death Penalty Dying?

Introduction: transatlantic perspectives on capital punishment: national identity, the death penalty, and the prospects for abolition Austin Sarat and Jurgen Martschukat; Part I. What Is a Penalty of Death: Capital Punishment in Context: 1. The green, green grass of home: capital punishment and the penal system from a long-term perspective Pieter Spierenburg; 2. Did anyone die here? Legal personalities, the supermax and the politics of abolition Colin Dayan; 3. Capital punishment as homeowners insurance: the rise of the homeowner citizen and the fate of ultimate sanctions in both Europe and the United States Jonathan Simon; Part II. On the Meaning of Death and Pain in Europe and the United States: Viewing, Witnessing, Understanding: 4. The witnessing of judgment: between error, mercy, and vindictiveness Evi Girling; 5. Unframing the death penalty: transatlantic discourse on the possibility of abolition and the execution of Saddam Hussein Kathryn A. Heard; 6. Executions and the debate about abolition in France and in the US Simon Grivet; Part III. Abolitionist Discourses/Abolitionist Strategies/Abolitionist Dilemmas: Transatlantic Perspectives: 7. Civilized rebels: death penalty abolition in Europe as cause, mark of distinction, and political strategy Andrew Hammel; 8. The death of dignity Timothy Kaufman-Osborn; 9. Sovereignty and the unnecessary penalty of death: European and United States perspectives Jon Yorke; 10. European policy on the death penalty Agata Fijalkowski; 11. In the shadow of death: capital punishment, mass incarceration, and penal policy in the United States Marie Gottschalk.