Jonathan Simon Says Death Penalty Has Become a Political Symbol

Stateline.org, September 7, 2010 by Louis Jacobson
http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=510578

“In many states, especially California, the death penalty figures less as a real tool of criminal justice or crime control and more of a symbolic statement about whether someone identifies the fears of ordinary citizens about crime,” says Jonathan Simon, a law professor at the University of California (Berkeley).