ABSTRACT
Today, the use of death as punishment has come to an end in all European states. It is the price European states have to pay to be members of the Council of Europe. Belarus is the only exception. It is just a pity the US is not under the same pressure. But David Garland is not trapped in the simple idea that the continued use of the death penalty in the US is a historical relic a continuation of slavery traditions. Instead he finds an explanation by looking at the United States (US) as a land of fundamental cleavages. But there is the other form of death: imprisonment, living death. Several states in the US have abolished the use of the death penalty and federal authorities regulate the forms of executions. It has to be a death without pain; deaths by poison, but not until those who are to die are heavily tranquillized. But before death they wait for years.
