Mercy on Trial

Austin Sarat is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College and Five College Fortieth Anniversary Professor. He is author, coauthor, or editor of more than fifty books, including "When the State Kills" and "Law, Violence, and the Possibility of Justice" (both Princeton), and "Divorce Lawyers and their Clients". His teaching has been featured in the "New York Times" and on the "Today Show". Sarat was the corecipient of the 2004 Reginald Heber Smith Award given biennially to honor the best scholarship on "the subject of equal access to justice."

Winner of the 2006 James Boyd White Prize, Association for the Study of Law, Culture, and the Humanities "Professor Sarat is a merciless researcher ... and provides an arresting account of mercy in the modern age that will engage readers on all sides of the debate."--Harvard Law Review "A multi-layered and thought-provoking book... Mercy on Trial is an important contribution to death penalty jurisprudence. In an era when the death penalty debate focuses so heavily on tinkering with the machinery, it is inspiring to come across such a well-written call to respond to the higher instincts within us: the instincts to empathize and forgive."--JaneAnne Murray, New York Law Journal "Austin Sarat has written yet another thoughtful and thought-provoking book on the death penalty... Sarat clearly and profoundly considers if, how, and when executive branches of government should use [clemency] with respect to the death penalty."--Choice "This book is rich in detail for those who care about these issues. Its observation that clemency is disorderly when framed only as mercy is well-taken. There are, fortunately, other good reasons for granting clemency."--Edward Kent, Law and Politics Book Review "This book is a welcome and most original addition to this troubling topic."--John Cooper, Times (London) "Mercy on Trial offers several insights for those interested in crime, law and capital punishment. It is at once a theoretically sophisticated treatment of the role of mercy and clemency in a liberal legal system, as well as a concise history of 20th-century mass capital clemencies. But perhaps most importantly, Mercy on Trial provides a nuanced analysis of Governor Ryan's high-profile and controversial mass commutation."--Paul J. Kaplan, Theoretical Criminology "Austin Sarat deftly deconstructs recent examples of clemency to illustrate the illusion of mercy in the clemency process."--Daniel P. Patrykus, Wisconsin Lawyer

• Acknowledgments xi Chapter 1: Mercy, Clemency, and Capital Punishment 1 The Illinois Story Chapter 2: Capital Clemency in the Twentieth Century 33 Putting Illinois in Context Chapter 3: The Jurisprudence of Clemency 69 What Place for Mercy? Chapter 4: Governing Clemency 94 From Redemption to Retribution Chapter 5: Clemency without Mercy 116 George Ryan's Dilemma Chapter 6: Conclusion 143 On Mercy and Its Risks Appendix A: George Ryan: 163 "I Must Act" Appendix B: Capital Clemency, 1900-2004 181 Commutations by State Appendix C: Chronology of Capital Clemency, 1900-2004 189 Commutations by Governor Notes 259 Index 317