Memorializing Miscarriages of Justice

Clemency Petitions in the Killing State

Bibliographic Data

ID4775941
AuthorsAustin Sarat (University of Alabama, corresponding author)
Year2008
Volume42
Issue1
Pages183-224
Publication date2008-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLaw & Society Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0023-9216 • E-ISSN: 1540-5893
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/j.1540-5893.2008.00338.x
OpenAlexW2033901438
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited27

Clemency in capital cases today has become quite rare. Capital clemency has been a victim of the rejection of rehabilitation as the guiding philosophy of criminal sentencing and of the increasing politicization of issues of crime and punishment since the 1960s. Yet despite the reluctance of governors to grant clemency, despite the difficulty of rectifying miscarriages of justice through the clemency process, petitions seeking commutation or pardon in death cases still are regularly presented to chief executives. With so little chance of success, filing them may seem to be nothing more than an empty ritual. In this article, I examine clemency petitions from Texas and Virginia, and I argue that those petitions may serve another function, and take on meaning in another way. This function I label "memorialization." These pleas provide an archive of stories of law's failures, of alleged breakdowns in the legal process, of a legal process in disrepair, as well as of racial prejudice, of lives shattered by violence and neglect, of remorse, rehabilitation, and redemption. They are cultural artifacts, documents that address both governors and an indeterminate audience beyond them and that memorialize miscarriages of justice. While they reveal the importance of religion, family, and good works in American thinking about remorse, redemption, and mercy, they also should be seen as histories of the present, documenting the breakdowns and inequities in the death penalty system as well as the tragic circumstances of lives shaped and shattered by poverty, abuse, and neglect

Abandonment (legal · Capital (architecture · Criminology · Economic Justice · Human rights · Legal process · Meaning (existential · Neglect · Nothing · Political science · Prejudice (legal term · Punishment (psychology · Remorse · Restorative justice · Sociology · Torture · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis · History · Law · Psychology · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies

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