“You’re Putting Me Down Like an Animal”: Capital Punishment, Dehumanization, and Denial

Abstract: The United States is the only western democracy that still authorizes capital punishment. In recent years, we have put citizens to death using novel, untested methods of execution even veterinarians deem unethical for use on animals. States have also revived the gas chamber and electric chair, which until recently had been consigned to morally dubious chapters of history. State secrecy laws limit the public’s access to executions, but many of us are relieved not to have to confront the violence they entail. What happens when the State kills someone? What does legally sanctioned death look like? When we turn away in disgust or discomfort, what are we failing to see? Capital punishment is intended to express our collective censure of a person’s extreme antisocial behavior—but it says as much about us as it does about those we condemn.