Legal Lynching The Death Penalty And American s Future

Shree Siwakoti Professor: Dr. Jawjeong Wu CRJ 408 Death Penalty Date: 05/12/2015 Book Review: Legal Lynching The Death Penalty And American’s Future The Reverend Jesse L. Jackson Sr., the former presidential candidate, writes â€Å"Legal Lynching The Death Penalty And American’s Future†. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., wrote this book in the company of his son Jesse L. Jackson, Jr., a United State congressman from Illinois since 1995, and Nation writer Bruce Shapiro a contributing editor at National and a national correspondent for Salon.com, and the professor at Yale University. In this book Jackson’s keep his moderated argument about the death penalty. There are nine chapters in this book, each chapter tackle a different facet of the argument. This†¦show more content†¦First hanging execution to Kendall for being a spy for Spain. British law in 1610s routinely handed out the death sentence even for minor crimes like robbery, burglary. Authors mention that one of the great execution of sentence generally restrained of the application of the death penalty in colonial America, and it was an exception that echoes today. Authors question, what made the death penalty most likely in colonies? It wasn’t the severity of the offense but the skin color of the offender. African American slaves and their descendant were from the very first singled out for indiscrimination and large scale execution, both to enforce the discipline of the slavery because African American were considered pagan and resistant to redemption. The United State has long history of death penalty, United State s use of the death penalty over the past four centuries. In August 1890, American was walking up to the power of twentieth- century technology, to the first light bulbs, automobiles, photographic, telephones. In the basement of Auburn State Penitentiary in upstate New York, a man named William Kemmler is bound to a chair with heavy leather stripes. Kemmler who had been convicted of murdering his Lovers, Matilda Ziegler, with and axe, his execution was the first execution by electrocution in history. Reverend Jackson Sr., and Jackson Jr., devotes a substantial section of â€Å" Legal Lynching† to a