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By Isaac Chotiner
December 24, 2025
Clarence Summers has a day job in the energy industry, but he considers his vocation to be the administration of Buell’s prosperity lottery. The lottery sees one Buell resident stoned to death each summer, following a randomized selection process that Summers facilitates. Buell’s residents believe the lottery protects them from evil and confers good fortune upon the town.
I recently spoke by phone with Summers. During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed why he thinks the lottery is justified, evolving attitudes toward stoning, and what protections the state owes to children.
The obvious criticism of the lottery is that it’s state-sanctioned mob violence and murder. What is your response to that critique?
O.K., first of all, “murder” is a very specific term. Of course murder is wrong, but I don’t accept that every death caused by humans is a murder. Is it murder when the United States Army takes out a nest of terrorists? When a criminal on death row is given a lethal injection, is that murder?
Are you asking me?
I’m saying yes, the lottery involves death. No, I do not accept that it involves murder.
So last year, when Buell resident Demelza Delacroix died from—I’m going to quote the autopsy report here—from “blunt force trauma to the head and torso,” in your view that wasn’t murder?
Of course if you cherry-pick lines from an autopsy report it’s going to sound bad. “Blunt force trauma,” yeah, it’s scary, we sound like monsters. You’re being very misleading. That report is not a good representation of the facts. Does it mention that Demelza was eighty-two years old?
It does, actually. So you're suggesting that because Demelza was eighty-two, she deserved a violent and prolonged death at the hands of her friends and neighbors.
I never said that. You’re twisting my words.
Let’s change tack. A ProPublica journalist attended the 2024 lottery—
Not “attended.” She infiltrated it. The lottery is a private event, and lurking—actually lurking overnight in the post office, so she could snoop on good honest townsfolk—I call it disgusting.
There was an international outcry after the ProPublica report was published.
Because people had an extremely biased and incomplete view of what happened, because if you’re hiding inside a mailbag you’re not going to get a full picture.
Earlier this year a United Nations special rapporteur called the continued practice of prosperity lotteries “shocking and distressing.” Clearly, you don't agree.
Isaac, let’s talk about who lives in Buell. Do we force anyone to live in Buell? No, we do not. Anyone who doesn’t like the lottery is free to leave. Staying in Buell is a choice people make, because Buell is a great place to live. And I would argue that a big part of the reason it’s a great place is the lottery.
So it was my understanding, and maybe this is incorrect. Maybe you can correct me. I thought that children also participated in the lottery.
With the assistance of an adult. Small children will have an adult helping them.
Helping them choose a slip of paper, sure, but when it comes to the actual stoning—
I’ll tell you something. I’ve lived in Buell for a long, long time. I’ve seen many lotteries. Only a handful of times has a child ever been selected.
Let’s be clear here, when you say “selected” you mean “stoned to death.”
Just like an adult would be in that circumstance, yeah.
I guess to me it seems like a pretty big difference that the children don’t have the ability to leave Buell. They’re in Buell because that’s where their parents are. So I’m a little confused by your argument that the residents of Buell are all choosing to live with the risk of dying by lottery.
In this country we say, and thank God for it in my opinion, we say that parents can raise their children the way they see fit, without interference from the state. Maybe you think it’s right to whoop a child that’s misbehaved, maybe you think it’s wrong. Maybe you love public school, maybe you want to homeschool. In America we say hey, it’s all good. You parent your way and I’ll parent mine.
Do you have children of your own?
I don’t really see how that’s relevant. No, I do not. My wife and I were not blessed with children.
Tell me more about the benefits or protection conferred by the lottery.
Well, you know the old saying “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.” That’s part of it, sure enough. But it’s more than that. We enjoy better health in Buell. We have a lower divorce rate. We don’t have the problems that a lot of other towns have. You just have to look at the figures for proof. During COVID—our survival rates during COVID were sky-high. We barely had any fatalities, compared to some of the towns near us that don’t do the lottery anymore. There’s nothing else that can explain that. [Publicly available Franklin county records indicate that COVID deaths in Buell were in line with the county average.]
Buell is one of the last remaining towns in the U.S. still conducting a prosperity lottery. Activists are lobbying Congress to outlaw the lottery entirely. What do you see as the future of the lottery in Buell?
Here’s the thing, you’ve asked me all these questions. You’re painting an extremely one-dimensional picture of our town, which is a wonderful place to live despite everything you’re insinuating. Ask me about all the other things I do for Buell, O.K? I coördinate an incredible Halloween costume parade every year. We have a club for teen-agers, keeps them out of trouble, off drugs. Who do you think founded that? I’m a very civic-minded man, and I help out with the lottery because I care about my neighbors and I want us all to prosper. They can pass whatever the heck kind of law they want down in Washington. I don’t really care about all that.
You’re suggesting that even if the lottery is outlawed, it will continue in Buell?
Why don’t you just worry about yourself, Isaac.
Let’s take a step back—
I’m done. This conversation is done. I’ll tell you one last thing. I take a slip of paper from the box every year, O.K.? When it's my turn, if it's my turn, I'll be ready.