The focus of this article is to investigate how Latino Americans have been historically racialized in popular culture, key state legislative iniatives, and jurors’ death sentencing decisions. While the bulk of the literature on the death penalty and criminal punishment more broadly focuses on racial disparities in sentencing outcomes, far less is know about how the sentencing process is itself racialized. Drawing on the stories of former jurors who served in death penalty cases involving Latino American defendants, we argue that such agents of the state are racially disciplined to punish in capital murder trials. Finally, we comment on directions for a more culturally-centered study of penal action.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Baldus, David C., George Woodward, David Zuckerman, Neil Alan Weiner and Barbara Broffitt (1998) ‘Racial discrimination and the death penalty in the post- Furmanera: An empirical and legal overview, with recent findings from Philadelphia’ , Cornell Law Review83: 1638-1734 .
2.
Beckett, Katherine (1997) Making crime pay. New York: Oxford University Press .
3.
Bell, Derek (1995) ‘Brown v. Board of Education and the interest convergence dilemma’, in Kimberley Williams Crenshaw (ed.) Critical race theory: The key writings that formed the movement. New York: The New Press .
4.
Bourne, Jenny (2001) ‘The life and times of institutional racism’ , Race & Class43(2): 7-22 .
5.
Bowers, William J. (1995) ‘The capital jury project: Rationale, design, and a preview of early findings’ , Indiana Law Journal70: 1043-1102 .
6.
Castro, Diego O. (1998) ‘“Hot blood and easy virtue”: Mass media and the making of Latino/a stereotypes’, in Coramae Richey Mann and Marjorie S. Zatz (eds) Images of color, images of crime. Los Angeles: Roxbury Publishing Company .
7.
Chambers, Andrew. (2000) ‘Ryan halts all executions in Illinois’ , Chicago Daily Law Bulletin(January 31): 1 .
8.
Comaroff, Jean and John Comaroff (1991) Of revelation and revolution. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press .
Editors (1992) ‘“Us” vs. “them”: Buchanan’s appeal to voters’ fears’ , Los Angeles Times (March 5): B6 .
11.
Elias, Robert (1994) Victims still: The political manipulation of crime victims. Newbury Park: Sage .
12.
Ewick, Patricia, and Susan S. Silbey (1995) ‘Subversive stories and hegemonic tales: Towards a sociology of narrative’ , Law & Society Review29: 197-226 .
13.
Feagin, Joe R. (2000) Racist America. New York: Routledge .
14.
Fleury-Steiner, Benjamin (2002) ‘Narratives of the death sentence: Toward a theory of legal narrativity’ , Law & Society Review36: 549-576 .
15.
Foucault, Michel (1979) Discipline and punish. New York: Vintage Books .
16.
Foucault, Michel (1980) Power/knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings, 1972-1977. New York: Pantheon Books .
17.
Foucault, Michel (1991) ‘Governmentality’, in Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon and Peter Miller (eds) The Foucault effect: Studies in governmentality, pp. 87-104. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press .
18.
Foucault, Michel (2002) Society must be defended: Lectures at the college de France, 1975-76. New York: Picador .
19.
Garcia, Ruben J. (1995) ‘Critical race theory and proposition 187: The racial politics of immigration law’ , Chicano-Latino Law Review17: 118-154 .
20.
Garcia, Ruben J. (2003) ‘Across the borders: Immigrant status and identity in law and Latcrit theory’ , Florida Law Review: 511-537 .
21.
Gomez, Laura E. (1998) ‘ “ Constructing Latino/a identities” 187: The racial politics of immigration law’ , Chicano-Latino Law Review18: 187-191 .
22.
Howarth, Joan W. (1994) ‘Deciding to kill: Revealing the gender in the task handed to capital jurors’ , Wisconsin Law Journal: 1345-1424 .
23.
Lubiano, Wahneema (1992) ‘Black ladies, welfare queens, and state minstrels: Ideological war by narrative means’, in Toni Morrison (ed.) Race-ing justice, en-gendering power, pp. 323-363. New York: Pantheon Books .
24.
Luna, Gadalupe T. (1999) ‘Beyond/between colors: On the complexities of race: The treaty Of Guadalupe Hidalgo and Dred Scott v. Sandford’ , University of Miami Law Review53: 691-716 .
25.
McCleskey v. Kemp, 481 US 279 (1987).
26.
Mata, Jr, Alberto G. (1998) ‘Immigrant bashing and nativist political movements’, in Coramae Richey Mann and Marjorie S. Zatz (eds) Images of color, images of crime, pp. 145-155. Los Angeles: Roxbury Publishing Company .
27.
Mello, Michael A. (1998) Dead wrong: A death row lawyer speaks out against capital punishment. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press .
Moran, Rachel F. (1997) ‘What if Latinos really mattered in the public policy debate?’ , California Law Review85: 1315-1345 .
30.
Munoz, E.A., David A. Lopez and Eric Stewart (1998) ‘Misdemeanor sentencing decisions: The cumulative disadvantage effect of “gringo justice” ’ , Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences20(3): 298-319 .
31.
Nelson, Lars-Erik (2000) ‘Color of skin can be fatal in Texas courts’ , New York Daily News(7 June): 35 .
32.
Oboler, Suzanne (1995) Ethnic labels, Latino lives: Identity and the politics of (re)presentation in the United States. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press .
33.
Oliver, Melvin and Thomas Shapiro (1996) Black wealth/white wealth: A new perspective on racial inequality. New York: Routledge .
34.
Omi, Michael and Howard Winant (1986) Racial formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1980s. New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul .
Sarat, Austin (1993) ‘Speaking of death: Narratives of violence in capital trials’ , Law & Society Review27: 19-58 .
37.
Sarat, Austin (1995) ‘Violence, representation, and responsibility in capital trials: The view from the jury’ , Indiana Law Journal70: 1103-1136 .
38.
Sarat, Austin (1998) The killing state: Capital punishment in law politics and culture. New York, NY: Oxford University Press .
39.
Sarat, Austin (2001) When the state kills: Capital punishment and the American condition. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press .
40.
Steiner, Benjamin D. (2001) ‘The consciousness of crime and punishment: Reflections on identity politics and law-making in the war on drugs’ , Studies in Law, Politics, and Society.
41.
Steiner, Benjamin D., William J. Bowers and Austin Sarat (1998) ‘Folk knowledge as legal action: Death penalty judgments and the tenet of early release in a culture of mistrust and punitiveness’ , Law & Society Review33: 461-506 .
42.
Van Dijk, Teun A. (1993) ‘Stories and racism’, in Dennis K. Mumby (ed.) Narrative and social control: Critical perspectives, pp. 121-142. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage .
