On Art and the Death Penalty: Invitation to a Beheading

Abstract:     
With the exception of the United States, western democracies and human rights organizations have virtually all abolished the death penalty. At the same time, the judicial organs of those states and institutions have been loathe to declare a universal prohibition on the state putting a convicted person to death. Rather, they attempt to circumvent the question by focusing on the method of execution or its delay. Like Vladimir Nabokov's prisoner waiting on death row, capital punishment is deemed intolerable not because it is wrong, but because it is unaesthetic.

Keywords: death penalty, extradition, human rights, law and literature

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