III. CIVIL RIGHTS TURNED WRONG

The death penalty process displays many features of a communal ritual, and ritual and symbolism are, as we know, intrinsic parts of modern politics.

Having outlined the influence of religion on criminal justice, as well as having situated the system within the American will toward civil religion, this part turns the ritual scope onto two distinct eras of punishment in America. These eras show the appropriation of punishment toward ritual ends, which, through the process of killing, brings the civil ritual thesis to life. The first examines the phenomenon of lynching in the American South after the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment. The second examines imprisonment trends that followed later civil rights developments. In both periods, issues of purity and superiority were closely tied to legal changes to the status quo that would lead to unprecedented trends in harsh punishment. They reveal the criminal's utility as a social scapegoat, which is particularly necessary during times of turmoil and social crisis.