The 'Question' of the Death Penalty

This essay addresses the 'question' of the death penalty in Derrida's Death Penalty Seminars: the question of the death penalty, if there is one , that is, if there is 'la' question de la peine de mort. For nothing is less certain. Not only must we speak of a proliferation of questions in the seminars, but we must also speak of Derrida's question about the question. How do the possibility and the reality of the death penalty, how does the question of the death penalty, force us to ask a question not only about what comes before the question but also about the future of the question, that is, about the future of reason, the principle of reason, and what is proper to man?