Capital Trials and Representations of Violence

Abstract

Sociolegal research focused on equal protection and the death penalty faces an impasse as the result of recent Supreme Court decisions limiting the admissability of social science research in general and of aggregate data on bias in the application of capital punishment in particular. This impasse, however, provides an opportunity to renew investigation and analysis of the deeper meaning and implications of the death penalty in contemporary societies, not in abandonment of but as a complement to equal protection–oriented research.