“‘Torn’ Between Justice and Forgiveness: Derrida on the Death Penalty and ‘Lawful Lawlessness’”

Abstract

In 1996, philosopher Jacques Derrida appealed to then President Bill Clinton to encourage a re-trial for American death-row prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal. Derrida's co-authored open letter, one of his most famous political interventions, rehearses the trajectory of his later writings on ethics, specifically the interrelated concepts of justice and forgiveness. In articulating the limits of legality, Derrida contends that an unconditional forgiveness exists outside the conventional dichotomy of the possible and the impossible. The performative paradox of “forgiving the unforgivable” may well require, in his own formulation, a “messianicity beyond messianism.”

Citation

Brenner, D.A. (2005), "“‘Torn’ Between Justice and Forgiveness: Derrida on the Death Penalty and ‘Lawful Lawlessness’”", Sarat, A. (Ed.) Crime and Punishment: Perspectives from the Humanities (Studies in Law, Politics, and Society, Vol. 37), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 109-122. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1059-4337(05)37005-0