When the State Kills: Capital Punishment and the American Condition.

From Library Journal Sarat (political science, Amherst Coll.; The Killing State: Capital Punishment in Law, Politics, and Culture) makes a persuasive argument here for the abolition of the death penalty. Unlike Hugo Adam Bedau's more comprehensive The Death Penalty in America: Current Controversies (LJ 3/15/97), this volume does not attempt to present both sides or analyze the imposition of the penalty. The author's belief is that the death penalty harms our democracy by promoting vengeance and racial divisions. By placing crime victims foremost, he says, the state ignores the underlying causes of crime. He argues that DNA testing both exposes the failures of the criminal justice system and gives politicians a way to accept abolition of the death penalty. Using gruesome photos of executions, detailed discussions of the death penalty in the movies, and interviews with jurors and attorneys, Sarat illustrates his points. The book is not easy to read, but the author's sophisticated analysis makes it worthwhile. For specialized collections. Harry Charles, Attorney at Law, St. Louis Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. From