Executing Freedom: The Cultural Life of Capital Punishment in the United States

In the mid-1990s, when public trust in government was at a historic low, 80% of Americans supported the death penalty according to Gallup polling. This raises a paradox: why did citizens skeptical of government's ability to regulate the economy or provide services believe it should retain the power to execute its citizens? Daniel LaChance's *Executing Freedom* examines the death penalty's place in American culture and how public attitudes toward it have shifted over time. Drawing on congressional hearings, campaign speeches, true crime works like *In Cold Blood*, and films such as *Dead Man Walking*, LaChance traces how death penalty attitudes reflect broader changes in American thinking about the relationship between individuals and the state. Emerging from 1970s disillusionment, the death penalty became a symbol for many of what government could accomplish. LaChance argues that the gap between this mythology and capital punishment's actual performance may ultimately lead to its decline in the United States.