Title Lethal state : a history of the death penalty in North Carolina / Seth Kotch

Published Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, [2019]

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Description 1 online resource Series Justice, Power, and Politics Justice, power, and politics. Contents The general sense of justice: lynching and the death penalty, 1880-1950 -- Without howling, without squirming : reinventing the death penalty in Jim Crow North Carolina, 1910-1936 -- I cannot allow this boy to be executed : the essential role of mercy, 1910-1949 -- Intelligent and civilized sentiments : activism, discretion, and the decline of the death penalty, 1941-1961 -- An emotional craving : the revival of the death penalty in North Carolina, 1961-1984 Summary For years, American states have tinkered with the machinery of death, seeking to align capital punishment with evolving social standards and public will. Against this backdrop, North Carolina had long stood out as a prolific executioner with harsh mandatory sentencing statutes. But as the state sought to remake its image as modern and business-progressive in the early twentieth century, the question of execution preoccupied lawmakers, reformers, and state boosters alike. In this book, Seth Kotch recounts the history of the death penalty in North Carolina from its colonial origins to the present. He tracks the attempts to reform and sanitize the administration of death in a state as dedicated to its image as it was to rigid racial hierarchies. Through this lens, Lethal State helps explain not only Americans' deep and growing uncertainty about the death penalty but also their commitment to it. Kotch argues that Jim Crow justice continued to reign in the guise of a modernizing, orderly state and offers essential insight into the relationship between race, violence, and power in North Carolina. The history of capital punishment in North Carolina, as in other states wrestling with similar issues, emerges as one of state-building through lethal punishment. --! From publisher's description Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Print version record Subject Capital punishment -- North Carolina -- History -- 20th century Capital punishment -- North Carolina -- History -- 19th century Lynching. African Americans -- Civil rights -- History -- 20th century SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Criminology. HISTORY -- United States -- State & Local -- South (AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, VA, WV) African Americans -- Civil rights Capital punishment Lynching Race relations SUBJECT North Carolina -- Race relations -- History -- 20th century Subject North Carolina Genre/Form History Form Electronic book ISBN 9781469649894 1469649896 9781469649887 1469649888 9798890857552

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