Justifying Capital Punishment in Principle and in Practice: Empirical Evidence of Distortion in Application

I. Introduction . . . . . 806 II. Judicial Opinions: Inappropriate Application . . . . . 808 A. Justice Blackmun in Callins . . . . . 808 B. The Roots in Furman and the 1976 Cases . . . . . 809 C. Principle and Practice . . . . . 811 D. Empirical Evidence . . . . . 814 III. CP as Constitutional or Just Only If Applied Precisely . . . . . 815 A. The Initial Argument . . . . . 815 B. CP Kills People . . . . . 817 IV. Implicit Appeals to the Premise that CP Is Unjust in Principle . . . . . 820 A. Discrimination in CP and in Education . . . . . 820 B. 'We Shouldn't Be Doing That Anyway' . . . . . 822 C. Protecting the Victims of Illegitimate Discrimination . . . . . 824 1. Convicted Murderers as the Victims of Discrimination . . . . . 825 2. Justice and Mercy . . . . . 829 3. Murder Victims and Survivors as the Victims of Discrimination . . . . . 830 V. Distortions in Practice as Undermining the Justification in Principle . . . . . 833 A. Consequentialist Justification . . . . . 833 B. Deontic Justification . . . . . 835 C. Common Pattern of Interpretation . . . . . 837 VI. Conclusion . . . . . 837