To Execute Capital Punishment: The Mortification and Scapegoating of Illinois Governor George Ryan
2006; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 70; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/10570310600992129
ISSN1745-1027
Autores Tópico(s)Torture, Ethics, and Law
ResumoGovernor George Ryan of Illinois spent most of his 35-year career in politics as a firm believer in the death penalty and the criminal justice system that enforced it. However, after 2 years as governor, Ryan placed a statewide moratorium on capital punishment and called for reform of the death penalty as practiced. Although the moratorium was controversial in itself, 3 years later and with only 3 days left in office Ryan, by then a complete convert and leading advocate against capital punishment, followed it with an unprecedented commutation of all Illinois death penalty sentences. This essay examines Governor Ryan's discourse surrounding the death penalty moratorium and commutation of death sentences, with specific focus on his statement in the 2002 Report on the Illinois Governor's Commission on Capital Punishment and his address on the commutation announcement on January 11, 2003. The essay argues that these particular speeches function dramatistically as a combination of mortification and factional scapegoating, whereby Ryan rejected the practice of capital punishment in the justice system by first negating the practice of it himself. This essay considers the manner in which Ryan, rather than choosing mortification or victimage to restore order, engaged in both. It also considers how Ryan joined his symbolic act with the moratorium and commutation as actual mortification and factional scapegoating.
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