ABSTRACT
We come now to the final topics: lynching and capital punishment. Turning a fully protected citizen into a dehumanized felon whose life can be taken is an uncertain business.1 It has been so for a very long time. Historically, many actions have carried the death penalty, including disobeying one’s parents, disregarding the Sabbath, blasphemy, shoddy construction, sodomy, adultery, abortion, robbery, rape, and murder. One thing has remained constant: those already on the margins of assessed social worth are those most vulnerable to receive death as a punishment. This conclusion has been widely noted and repeatedly illustrated across time, place, and life circumstances.2 A clear example comes from the period when lynchings soiled the landscape of the United States.3
