Abstract
Two recent highly publicized executions prompt reexamination of the bases for widespread support for capital punishment in the USA. A brief review of the history of executions in the U.S. shows a general increase following a de facto moratorium on capital punishment during 1967–77. Among developed democracies, only the USA and Japan have retained the practice of the death penalty, and far fewer people are executed in Japan than in the USA. Likewise, the USA stands out among other developed countries for its high murder rate and other peculiar social ills. It can be argued that the death penalty not only serves to gratify a need for retribution and for reassurance that the system of social order is maintained but also functions as imitative magic in attempting to rid US society of its social problems and cultural incongruities. Magical belief in the deterrence value of the death penalty is illustrated with native testimony.
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