Confronting the Death Penalty

Confronting the Death Penalty probes how jurors make the ultimate decision about whether another human being should live or die. Drawing on ethnographic and qualitative linguistic methods, the book explores how language, including written laws and trial talk, affects jurors' death penalty decisions. By focusing on how language can both facilitate and stymie empathic encounters, Conley investigates the interface between experiential and linguistic aspects of legal-decision making to address the moral conflict faced by jurors that is inherent to death penalty trials.