Overview

For twelve years, criminal law professor and leading retributivist Robert Blecker wandered freely inside Lorton Central Prison, armed only with cigarettes, a tape recorder, and the prisoners' trust, probing the lives and crimes of street criminals. After decades of visiting death rows and prisons around the country, speaking with both guards and convicted killers, he began to better understand who did and did not deserve to die. While liberal activists decry the death penalty as unnecessarily expensive and too prone to human error, Blecker found a shocking alternative reality: in today's prisons, perversely, the worst criminals often live the best lives. Inside prison, it's nobody's job to punish. The Death of Punishment argues, on both moral and practical grounds, that we fail to punish criminals at our peril. Blecker offers a much-needed blueprint for making the punishment more closely fit the crime, and shows why European-style prisons, such as in Norway, where mass killers like Anders Breivik have professional playmates, do not supply the answer. Today, as Colorado prosecutors seek the death penalty for Aurora shooter James Holmes and we await the fate of Boston Marathon bomber Dzokhar Tsarnaev, the death penalty is once again a national conversation.

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9781137278562

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Reviews

An informative and often gripping read...Blecker's descriptions of life and leisure for brutal killers will move many to outrage. - RealClearPolitics Written in a breezy, conversational style, the [book] contains Blecker's commentary about the administration of punishment and his conversations with prisoners about it. This is a valuable addition to the literature, written for a popular audience. --Library Journal Arresting fusion of memoir and jeremiad, arguing for a punitive approach toward the worst perpetrators of social violence, amid a general overhaul of attitudes toward criminality... While many will dismiss his viewpoint, Blecker presents a strong case with legalistic rigor on some of the darkest questions facing society. --Kirkus Reviews A truly remarkable and deeply moral book -- an eloquent, unsparing, often counterintuitive, and sometimes painful meditation on why, whom, and how a decent society should decide to punish, and what those questions can teach us about universal truths of morality and justice. A philosophically and legally sophisticated page-turner is a rare thing to behold, but Robert Blecker has produced just that. If you think you already know what you believe about the death penalty, think again and read this book. If you care deeply about questions of right and wrong, read it twice. --Laurence H. Tribe, University Professor and Professor of Constitutional Law, Harvard Law School, and author of The Invisible Constitution and American Constitutional Law Robert Blecker is probably the most articulate death penalty supporter around, and easily the most honest. His argument is one that any death penalty supporter will identify with, but more importantly, it's one any opponent must answer. --David Dow, founder of Texas Innocence Network, author of Autobiography of an Execution A seamless blend of the writings of the Ancients, modern law and practice, and rich personal insights, The Death of Punishment is a beautifully wri

Author Information

Robert Blecker is a professor at New York Law School and a nationally known expert on the death penalty. He served previously as Special Assistant Attorney General in the New York State Office of Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor, and was a Harvard University Fellow in Law and Humanities. The sole keynote speaker supporting the death penalty at major conferences and at the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. He is a frequent commentator for national media, including The New York Times, PBS, CourtTV, CNN, and BBC World News. He lives in New York City.

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