“The uncanny assemblage of scientific, institutional, legal, and social forces all pushing to strip government of its power to kill make it seem as if there really is a mysterious arc bending toward justice. More prosaically, we are seeing a moral principle—Life is sacred, so killing is onerous—become distributed across a wide range of actors and institutions that have to cooperate to make the death penalty possible. As these actors and institutions implement the principle more consistently and thoroughly, they inexorably push the country away from the impulse to avenge a life with a life. The pathways are manifold and torturous, the effects are slow and then sudden, but in the fullness of time an idea from the Enlightenment can transform the world.”
