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

• Date: 15 December 2005
• Pages: 109-122
• Published date: 15 December 2005
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1059-4337(05)37005-0
• Author: David A. Brenner

‘‘‘TORN’ BETWEEN JUSTICE AND

FORGIVENESS: DERRIDA ON

THE DEATH PENALTY AND

‘LAWFUL LAWLESSNESS’’’

David A. Brenner

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 mess-

ianism.’’

I can only say I prefer life, starting with my own lifeyI am against the death penalty,

but the issue of its abolition is not a closed discoursey

(Derrida, 2000)

Crime and Punishment: Perspectives from the Humanities

Studies in Law, Politics, and Society, Volume 37, 109–122

Copyright r2005 by Elsevier Ltd.

All rights of reproduction in any form reserved

ISSN: 1059-4337/doi:10.1016/S1059-4337(05)37005-0

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