A new book by Kathleen Cairns explores the intrigu­ing sto­ry of Barbara Graham, who was exe­cut­ed for mur­der in California in 1955, and whose case became a touch­stone in the ongo­ing debate over cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. In Proof of Guilt: Barbara Graham and the Politics of Executing Women in America, Cairns exam­ines how dif­fer­ent nar­ra­tives por­trayed Graham, with pros­e­cu­tors describ­ing her as mys­te­ri­ous and seduc­tive, while some of the media empha­sized Graham’s abu­sive and lone­ly child­hood. The book also describes how Graham’s case became cru­cial to the death-penal­ty abo­li­tion­ists of the time, as ques­tions of guilt were used to raise aware­ness of the arbi­trary and capri­cious nature of the death penalty. 

Cairns is a lec­tur­er in the Department of History at California Polytechnic State University. She has also writ­ten The Enigma Woman: The Death Sentence of Nellie May Madison (Nebraska, 2007) and Hard Time at Tehachapi: California’s First Women’s Prison.

Read a review of the book and a thor­ough look at Barbara Graham’s case from KCET-TV in Los Angeles.

(K. Cairns, ​“Proof of Guilt: Barbara Graham and the Politics of Executing Women in America,” University of Nebraska Press, April 2013; DPIC post­ed April 11, 2013). See Women and Books on the death penalty.

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