Disaggregating LWOP: Life Without Parole, Capital Punishment, and Mass Incarceration in Florida, 1972-1995

The “juveniles are different” doctrine is gaining ground in the United States. It holds that children, unlike adults, should not receive merciless punishments like life without parole, given their immaturity, impulsivity, and limited brain development. The doctrine’s impact has been both significant and modest because it operates in an exceptionally repressive context considering the advent of mass incarceration. Unless construed more broadly, it may help rationalize draconian sentences for adults and cement the status quo. This Article offers a wider historical and comparative perspective. Over time, age has recurrently served to legitimize punitiveness toward children or adults. America has oscillated between deeming that juveniles deserve fewer rights than adults, that they deserve more rights, or that they should essentially be treated the same. After diverse paradigm shifts, mass incarceration led to a downward-leveling process whereby juveniles were punished just as ruthlessly as adults. “Juveniles are different” was a reaction to this trend, although punitive assumptions undergird its rigid age carve-outs. This Article calls for a new phase: an upward-leveling process under which juveniles’ emerging right to be free from merciless punishments would apply to everyone. This is the norm in other Western democracies, which have gravitated toward universal human rights and moderate punishment. A broader outlook may spell the difference between a conception of “juveniles are different” that casts adults as irredeemable and a stepping-stone toward meaningful systemic reform.

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Making sense of life without parole in China

Punishment & Society ◽

10.1177/1462474517739848 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

pp. 70-88 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Tobias Smith ◽

Su Jiang

Keyword(s):

20Th Century ◽

Death Penalty ◽

Violent Crime ◽

Capital Punishment ◽

Late 20Th Century ◽

Republic Of China ◽

Life Without Parole ◽

Making Sense ◽

The Us ◽

The World

In 2015, the People’s Republic of China introduced the sentence of lifelong imprisonment for a single, non-violent crime: corruption. Although life without the possibility of parole statutes were increasingly common in the US and across the world by the late 20th century, this is the first such statute ever introduced in China. While introducing the new punishment for corruption, China, the world’s leading executioner, retained the death penalty for corruption as well. This study examines the reasons for China’s adoption of life without the possibility of parole and situates China in global debates about the punitive turn and capital punishment. It also provides insights for understanding how the adoption of life without the possibility of parole fits into a wider constellation of penal practices.

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“Good Ol' Boys” and the Chair: Death Penalty Attitudes of Policy Makers in Tennessee

Crime & Delinquency ◽

10.1177/0011128798044002004 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 44 (2) ◽

pp. 245-256 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

John T. Whitehead

Keyword(s):

Death Penalty ◽

Capital Punishment ◽

Mentally Ill ◽

State Legislators ◽

Research Support ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Public Defenders ◽

Life Without Parole ◽

District Attorneys ◽

Attorneys General

This report is a summary of a survey of Tennessee chief prosecutors (district attorneys general), chief public defenders, and state legislators concerning their attitudes toward capital punishment. Global approval was compared with (1) approval when offered the options of life without parole and (2) life without parole and restitution to the victim's family. Additional items probed approval of capital punishment for specific subpopulations: juvenile, mentally ill, and mentally retarded offenders. Consistent with previous research, support for the death penalty declined when respondents were given the option of life without parole. A concluding note is offered calling for more complete research on the issue.

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Deconstructing the Death Penalty

10.5422/fordham/9780823280100.001.0001 ◽

2018 ◽

Keyword(s):

Comparative Literature ◽

Death Penalty ◽

Capital Punishment ◽

Mass Incarceration ◽

Police Brutality ◽

Sovereign Power ◽

Francophone Studies ◽

Human Animal ◽

New Form ◽

Insight Into

This volume represents the first collection of essays devoted exclusively to Jacques Derrida's Death Penalty Seminars, conducted from 1999 to 2001. The volume includes essays from a range of scholars working in philosophy, law, Francophone studies, and comparative literature, including established Derridians, activist scholars, and emerging scholars. These essays attempt to elucidate and expand upon Derrida's deconstruction of the theologico-political logic of the death penalty in order to construct a new form of abolitionism, one not rooted in the problematic logics of sovereign power. These essays provide remarkable insight into Derrida’s ethical and political projects; this volume will not only explore the implications of Derrida’s thought on capital punishment and mass incarceration, but will also help to further elucidate the philosophical groundwork for his later deconstructions of sovereign power and the human/animal divide. Because Derrida is deconstructing the logic of the death penalty, rather than the death penalty itself, his seminars will prove useful to scholars and activists opposing all forms of state sanctioned killing. In compiling this volume, our goals were twofold: first, to make a case for Derrida's continuing importance in debates on capital punishment, mass incarceration, and police brutality, and second, to construct a new, versatile abolitionism, one capable of confronting all forms the death penalty might take.

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