The return of the capital punishment game

After a generation of decreasing use, the death penalty seems poised to return to presidential campaign battles, and this could lead to more executions — and not just because of Trump.

Republican presidential hopefuls are running around shouting "Off with their heads!" Trump has called for firing squads and guillotines. Not to be outdone, and unfortunately a more effectual Red Queen impersonator, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, has engineered the passage of a state death penalty bill, effective immediately, that lowers the standard for a criminal penalty finding for execution from 12-0 to 8-4 jurors.

Apart from political posturing, actual capital punishment has, fortunately, been in decline for several decades.

... the death penalty has become more of an abstraction in the past two decades. In 2020, for example, just 18 people were sentenced to death in the United States, despite years of Republican dominance of state-level politics. That’s down from 114 in 2010 and 223 in 2000.

Washington Post columnist Jason Willick shares the thoughts of a New York University sociologist, David Garland, who argues that "the purpose of the death penalty in Western societies has changed over time." Essentially, for a certain sort of politician, killing someone is a political chess move that provides a boost.

... “The system of capital punishment that exists in America today is primarily a communication system,” Garland argued. “It is about mounting campaigns, taking polls, passing laws, bringing charges, bargaining pleas, imposing sentences, and rehearing cases. It is about threats rather than deeds, anticipated deaths rather than actual executions. What gets performed, for the most part, is discourse and debate.” ...

The purpose of the death penalty, in other words, is no longer protecting the state or the public as such. It’s to be a source of material for politicians, activists, journalists, filmmakers and others....But the GOP’s death-penalty hype doesn’t break with the “late-modern mode” of capital punishment. Instead, it’s a perfect illustration of it. As the death penalty fades, calls for executions may become an increasingly valuable commodity for political entrepreneurs. ...

If we don't want Joe Biden pulling a Bill Clinton and furthering the execution of some unpleasant, but still human, offender to prop up his cred with "moderates," we need to let Democrats know loud and clear there will be penalties for playing in the judicial killing contest. The Death Penalty Information Center  and local ACLUs are a good place to start.

H/t to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for raising up this eruption of performative blood lust, once again.