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Narratives of the Death Sentence: Toward a Theory of Legal Narrativity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Benjamin Fleury-Steiner
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Abstract

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This article investigates how the consciousness of ordinary citizens enlisted as jurors in death penalty trials is racialized. The study draws on post-trial interviews with some 66 white and black jurors who served on 24 capital trials in which either a white or black defendant received the death sentence. Findings among white jurors reveal a hegemonic tale of racial inferiority. However, other characteristics such as social class or relevant biographical experiences help explain how jurors' stories are racialized. More specifically, racial inferiority is articulated in four congruous narratives: “individual responsibility,” “the tragedy of the ‘black’ group,” “the bad kid and the caring family,” and “the threatening outsider.” Furthermore, black jurors' stories are influenced by their background experiences as well. More-educated black jurors employ a sympathetic discourse toward the “culturally distant whites.” On the other hand, working-class blacks that have had negative experiences with whites in public are found to employ a narrative of “resisting white racism.” Understanding the subtle influences of legal agents' multiple identities in the remaking of racial hegemony has broader implications for a revised constitutive perspective of law—what I call a “theory of legal narrativity.”

Type
Papers of General Interest
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , 2002 , pp. 549 - 576
Copyright
Copyright © 2002 Law and Society Association.

Footnotes

An earlier version of this work was presented at the Law & Society Association meetings in Vancouver, June 2002, and at the American Sociological Association meetings in Chicago, August 2002. I am grateful to Joseph Sanders and Sally Merry for their patience, guidance, and words of wisdom in helping me bring this project to completion. Many thanks for the insightful comments of Margaret Andersen, Michael Antonio, Ronet Bachman, William Bowers, Anne Bowler, Ursula Bentele, Kitty Calavita, Jennifer Culbert, Valerie Hans, Tim Kaufman-Osborne, Mona Lynch, Anna Maria Marshall, Michael Musheno, Trish Oberweiss, Austin Sarat, Margaret Vandiver, and the LSR's anonymous reviewers. I am especially grateful to Laura Beth Nielsen for her painstaking readings of earlier drafts, her words of encouragement, and, most importantly, her friendship. Finally, I thank my life-partner, Dr. Ruth Fleury-Steiner, for all her love and support throughout the completion of this project. Support for this research was provided by a grant from the Law and Social Sciences Program of the National Science Foundation, grant NSF SES-9013252.

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