Just Mercy Culture

As students enter class, please take out Just Mercy and look for examples of how the culture constructs the dynamics of the death penalty in the US.

For the Discussion, please keep in mind these criteria:

Just Mercy Chapters 3-4:

Thinking like a symbolic interactionist, how does the language used by the police affect Walter?  How can the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis apply to the interaction between Walter and the police? 

The norms and subculture of death row.

Culture Shock and death row

Ethnocentrism

Cultural Relativity

Norms of death row

Norms of trials in deep south.

How institutions reproduce culture.

How institutions like Supreme Court can change culture.

Culture of death penalty in AL and the institution of politics

Cultural values (usefulness, practicality, self-help, individualism) create norms of intolerance

Real culture vs. ideal culture

Taboo and our legal system

For thought:

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pg 90-91 “…we would never think it was humane to pay someone to rape people convicted of rape or assault and abuse someone guilty of assault or abuse.  Yet we are comfortable killing people who kill, in part because we think we can do it in a manner that doesn’t implicate our own humanity, the way that raping or abusing someone would.  I couldn’t stop thinking that we don’t spend much time contemplating the details of what killing someone actually involves.”