In the course of reviewing Arthur T. Vanderbilt Professor of Law David Garland's much praised book, Peculiar Institution: America’s Death Penalty in an Age of Abolition, former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens took the opportunity to criticize the United States' administration of capital punishment. Writing in Sunday's New York Times, Adam Liptak suggests that the essay, which will appear in the December 2010 issue of the New York Review of Books, could be a sign that Stevens is more willing to speak his mind publicly than retired justices have been in the past. Stevens also appeared on 60 Minutes that evening.
Listen to David Garland discuss the social history of punishment on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show: