{"product_id":"against-the-death-penalty-the-argument-of-giuseppe-pelli-paperback","title":"Against the Death Penalty: The Argument of Giuseppe Pelli - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eJeff Hood\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThree years before Cesare Beccaria published the book that changed European criminal law, a Florentine civil servant sat down and wrote the first systematic case against the death penalty in the modern West.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThen he stopped. He never finished it. He never published it. The manuscript sat in a family archive for more than two centuries before scholars found it and understood what they had.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGiuseppe Pelli built his argument as a series of proofs, each one attacking a different foundation on which the claimed right to execute might rest. Natural law: the right cannot come from there. The social contract: a government cannot receive a power that no one who created it ever held. Necessity: confinement protects the public just as well. Deterrence: the evidence does not support it. Retaliation: applied consistently, it would have us torture torturers.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHe was a devout Catholic, and he did something with that no one else in the tradition had done. He took the doctrine of original sin - the standard theological justification for punishing criminals - and turned it against the court. If we are all fallen, then so are the judges and the juries and the witnesses. A fallen court needs a punishment it can take back. Death is the one punishment it cannot.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis book is not a translation. It is a recreation of Pelli's argument in new words, worked out at a length he never reached, and then brought into conversation with capital punishment in the United States in 2026. A second part sets each of his proofs beside the American death penalty as it operates now.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTHE ABOLITION CLASSICS - V. 3 \u003cem\u003eThe texts that built the case against the death penalty\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 80\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.19 x 8.5 x 5.5 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e August 11, 2026\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67868696707230,"sku":"9798235703148","price":17.06,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7748\/8030\/files\/wTq84_Tp29798235703148.webp?v=1793311126","url":"https:\/\/theword.com\/products\/against-the-death-penalty-the-argument-of-giuseppe-pelli-paperback","provider":"TheWord.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}