Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Table
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- 1 The Prison and the Gallows: The Construction of the Carceral State in America
- 2 Law, Order, and Alternative Explanations
- 3 Unlocking the Past: The Nationalization and Politicization of Law and Order
- 4 The Carceral State and the Welfare State: The Comparative Politics of Victims
- 5 Not the Usual Suspects: Feminists, Women's Groups, and the Anti-Rape Movement
- 6 The Battered-Women's Movement and the Development of Penal Policy
- 7 From Rights to Revolution: Prison Activism and the Carceral State
- 8 Capital Punishment, the Courts, and the Early Origins of the Carceral State, 1920s–1960s
- 9 The Power to Punish and Execute: The Political Development of Capital Punishment, 1972 to Today
- 10 Conclusion: Whither the Carceral State?
- Notes
- Select Bibliography
- Index
- Titles in the Series
8 - Capital Punishment, the Courts, and the Early Origins of the Carceral State, 1920s–1960s
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Table
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- 1 The Prison and the Gallows: The Construction of the Carceral State in America
- 2 Law, Order, and Alternative Explanations
- 3 Unlocking the Past: The Nationalization and Politicization of Law and Order
- 4 The Carceral State and the Welfare State: The Comparative Politics of Victims
- 5 Not the Usual Suspects: Feminists, Women's Groups, and the Anti-Rape Movement
- 6 The Battered-Women's Movement and the Development of Penal Policy
- 7 From Rights to Revolution: Prison Activism and the Carceral State
- 8 Capital Punishment, the Courts, and the Early Origins of the Carceral State, 1920s–1960s
- 9 The Power to Punish and Execute: The Political Development of Capital Punishment, 1972 to Today
- 10 Conclusion: Whither the Carceral State?
- Notes
- Select Bibliography
- Index
- Titles in the Series
Summary
“Gentlemen, I wish you all good luck. I believe I am going to a good place, and I am ready to go. I want only to say that a great deal has been said about me that is untrue. I am bad enough. It is cruel to make me out worse.”
– William Francis KemmlerBeginning with the 1966 gubernatorial races of Ronald Reagan in California and Claude Kirk, Jr., in Florida, the death penalty reemerged over the next two decades to become a central issue in key electoral contests. By the 1990s, leading candidates for national or statewide office rarely opposed capital punishment. Politicians regularly boasted about their willingness and indeed eagerness to carry out executions. In his 1990 reelection bid, Governor Bob Martinez (R-Fla.) proclaimed in his television ads: “I have now signed some 90 death warrants in the state of Florida.” His commercials ended with a picture of a smiling Ted Bundy, the serial killer whose January 1989 execution after a decade on death row was memorialized by cheering crowds and printed T-shirts with a recipe for “Fried Bundy.” During the 1992 presidential primaries, Governor Bill Clinton made a point of flying back to Arkansas to sign the death warrant of Rickey Ray Rector, who had turned a gun on himself after killing a police officer in a robbery gone awry and ended up severely mentally handicapped. Running for governor of California in 1998, Democrat Gray Davis cited repressive Singapore as a model for capital punishment.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Prison and the GallowsThe Politics of Mass Incarceration in America, pp. 197 - 215Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006