Ben Fleury-Steiner, Phd
Fleury-Steiner is Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of Delaware. He has published numerous articles on capital punishment, the war on drugs, and HIV+ prisoner rights. He is the author/co-author of three books, including a winner of the 2007 Choice award for outstanding academic title, The New Civil Rights Research: A Constitutive Approach (edited with Laura Beth Nielsen), Jurors’ Stories of Death: How America’s Death Penalty Invests in Inequality, and the forthcoming Dying Inside: The HIV/AIDS Ward at Limestone Prison will be published by the University of Michigan Press in September of 2008. Fleury-Steiner’s work on capital juror decision-making has been cited in numerous court cases, including three recent Supreme Court decisions. Currently, he is working on a study of the political economy of death penalty reform in Delaware, a project that investigates the very recent increases in both the state’s death row population and execution rates.
PUBLICATIONS
Books
Fleury-Steiner, Benjamin with Carla Crowder (In Press). Dying Inside: The HIV/AIDS Ward at Limestone Prison. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
Fleury-Steiner, Benjamin and Laura Beth Nielsen (2006). The New Civil Rights Research: A Constitutive Perspective. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Press.
Fleury-Steiner, Benjamin (2004) Jurors’ Stories of Death: How America’s Death Penalty Invests in Inequality. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
Refereed Journal Articles
Fleury-Steiner, Benjamin, Kerry Dunn, & Ruth Fleury-Steiner (Forthcoming). “Governing through Crime as Commonsense Racism: Reflections on Death Penalty “Reform” in Delaware. Punishment & Society.
Fleury-Steiner, Benjamin (2006) ""Different Approaches Need To Be Taken In Different Settings"—Situating Activist Prison Lawyering: The Struggle For HIV-Positive Prisoners Rights." 38 Studies in Law, Politics, & Society: 3-25.
Antonio, Michael, Benjamin Fleury-Steiner, Valerie P. Hans, & William J. Bowers (2004) “Capital Jurors as the Litmus Test of Community Conscience for the Juvenile Death Penalty.” 87 Judicature: 274-283.
Fleury-Steiner, Benjamin D. & Victor Argothy (2004) “Lethal ‘Borders’: Elucidating Jurors’ Racialized Discipline to Punish in Latino Defendant Death Cases.” 6 Punishment & Society: 67-84.
Fleury-Steiner, Benjamin D. & Kristian Wiles. (2003) “The Use of Commercial
Advertisements on Police Cars, USA Post-911.” 13 Policing & Society: 441-450.
Fleury-Steiner, Benjamin (2003) “Before or Against the Law? Citizens’ Legal Beliefs and Experiences as Death Penalty Jurors.” 27 Studies in Law, Politics, & Society 115-137.
Fleury-Steiner, Benjamin (2002) “Narratives of the Death Sentence: Toward a Theory of Legal Narrativity.” 36 Law & Society Review 549-576.
Steiner, Benjamin D. (2002) “Keeping the Public in the Dark: The (Un)Availability of Public Information Regarding the Parole of Murderers.” 6 Homicide Studies: 167-178, (2002).
Steiner, Benjamin D. (2001) “The Consciousness of Crime & Punishment: Reflections on Race, Political Narrative, & Lawmaking in the War on Drugs.” 23 Studies in Law, Politics, & Society:
185-212, (2001).
Steiner, Benjamin D., William J. Bowers, and Austin Sarat (1999) "Folk Knowledge as Legal Action: Death Penalty Judgments and the Tenet of Early Release in a Culture of Mistrust and Punitiveness” 33 Law & Society Review: 461-506.
Steiner, Benjamin D. (1999) "Still Arbitrary: Capital Sentencing in the Post-Furman Era." 10 Criminal Justice Policy Review: 85-102.
Law Review Articles
Bowers, William J., Benjamin Fleury-Steiner, Valerie P. Hans, & Michael E. Antonio (2004) “Too Young to Be Executed: An Empirical Examination of Community Conscience and the Juvenile Death Penalty from the Perspective of Capital Jurors,” 84 Boston University Law Review: 609-693.
Steiner, Benjamin D. and Victor Argothy (2001) “White Addiction: Racial Inequality, Racial Ideology, and the War on Drugs.” 10 Temple Political and Civil Rights Law Review: 443-475.
Bowers, William J., Benjamin D. Steiner, & Marla Sandys (2001) “Death Sentencing In Black & White: An Empirical Analysis of Jurors’ Race and Jury Racial Composition.” 3 Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law: 171-273.
Bowers, William J. & Steiner, Benjamin D. (1999) "Death by Default: An Empirical Demonstration of Forced and False Choices in Capital Sentencing.” 77 University of Texas Law Review 608-717.
Bowers, William J., Marla Sandys, & Benjamin D. Steiner (1998). "Foreclosed Impartiality in Capital Sentencing: Jurors' Predispositions, Guilt-Trial Experience, and Premature Decision Making.” 83 Cornell Law Review: 1476-1556.
Chapters
Fleury-Steiner, Benjamin and Aaron Fichtelberg (Forthcoming, 2008) "Paulina Escobar as Cause Lawyer: "Litigating" Human Rights in the Shadows of Death and the Maiden" in Austin Sarat and Stuart Schiengold, eds. The Cultural Live of Cause Lawyers. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Fleury-Steiner, Benjamin (2005). "Death in ‘Whiteface’: Modern Race Minstrels, Official Lynching and the Culture of American Apartheid," in Charles Ogletree and Austin Sarat, eds. From the Lynch Mob to the Killing State: Race and the Death Penalty in America. New York, NY: New York University Press.
Fleury-Steiner, Benjamin (2004). “William “Willie” Horton,” in F.Y. Bailey and S. Chermack, eds., Famous Criminal Trials and the Media. New York, NY: Praeger.
Bowers, William J., Benjamin Fleury-Steiner, & Michael E. Antonio (2003) "The Capital Sentencing Decision: Guided Discretion, Reasoned Moral Judgment, or Legal Fiction.” in J. Acker, R. Bohm, and C.S. Lanier, eds., America's Experiment with Capital Punishment: Reflections on the Past, Present, and Future of the Ultimate Penal Sanction” (2nd Edition). Durham, NC: Carolina Press.
Bowers, William J. & Benjamin D. Steiner (1998) "Choosing Life or Death: Sentencing Dynamics in Capital Cases," in J. Acker, R. Bohm, and C.S. Lanier, eds., America's Experiment with Capital Punishment: Reflections on the Past, Present, and Future of the Ultimate Penal Sanction.” Durham, NC: Carolina Press.
Bowers, William J. & Benjamin D. Steiner (1999) "People want an Alternative to the Death Penalty" (1999). in G. Stassen ed., Capital Punishment: A Reader. Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim Press.
Other Publications
Fleury-Steiner, Benjamin (Forthcoming). "Innocence Project." Sage Encyclopedia of Social Problems, ed., Vincent N. Parillo. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Fleury-Steiner, Benjamin (Forthcoming). "The Capital Jury Project" Sage Encyclopedia of Race and Crime, eds.,.Helen taylor Greene and Shaun L. Gabbidon. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Fleury-Steiner, Benjamin (2008) “Mercy on Trial: What it Means to Stop an Execution by Austin Sarat" 10 Punishment & Society.
Fleury-Steiner, Benjamin (2004) “The Wrong Man: A True Story of Innocence on Death Row by Michael Mello” 5 Punishment & Society.
Fleury-Steiner, Benjamin (2002) “Hegemony, Identity, and the Consciousness of Capital Sentencing Jurors.” Amici (Newsletter of the Sociology of Law Section of the American Sociological Association), Volume 10 pp.9-11.