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Guest post: "The Uses of Revenge, Redux"

By Douglas A. Berman

A colleague, W. David Ball, wrote me an interesting e-mail that I asked him to tweak into a guest post.  Here is what he sent my way: --- The Uses of Revenge, Redux Last week, the ALI voted to withdraw Section 210.6 of the Model Penal Code ? the section which provides a framework for the imposition of the death penalty ? because of the "current intractable institutional and structural obstacles to ensuring a minimally adequate system for administering capital punishment."  This decision gave me occasion to revisit Anders Walker's excellent article (posted here a few months ago) about Herbert Wechsler, the Reporter of the first Model Penal Code: American Oresteia: Herbert Wechsler, the Model Penal Code, and the Uses of Revenge.  What I found particularly fascinating was the idea that Wechsler, himself a utilitarian, nevertheless saw some benefit in retributivism: it satisfied the public's nature for revenge in a way that prevented the "degredation of criminal codes...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on June 03, 2009 (boomark / email).