Mercy on Trial
What It Means to Stop an Execution
Chapter One
MERCY, CLEMENCY, AND CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
THE ILLINOIS STORY
If we simply use the term "mercy" to refer to certain of the demands of
justice (e.g., the demand for individuation), then mercy ceases to be an
autonomous virtue and instead becomes part of ... justice. It thus
becomes obligatory, and all the talk about gifts, acts of grace,
supererogation, and compassion becomes quite beside the point. If, on
the other hand, mercy is totally different from justice and actually
requires (or permits) that justice sometimes be set aside, it then
counsels injustice. In short, mercy is either a vice (injustice) or
redundant part of justice.
-Jeffrie Murphy
No one who has never watched the hands of a clock marking the last
minutes of a condemned man's existence, knowing that he alone has the
temporary Godlike power to stop the clock, can realize the agony of
deciding an appeal for executive clemency.
-Michael DiSalle
Death is power' ... read full excerpt from Mercy on Trial: What It Means to Stop an Execution ebook
