A new book pub­lished in elec­tron­ic for­mat, The Death Penalty Failed Experiment: From Gary Graham to Troy Davis in Context by Diann Rust-Tierney, exam­ines the prob­lem of arbi­trari­ness in the death penal­ty since its rein­state­ment in 1976. Through an analy­sis of the cas­es of Gary Graham and Troy Davis, the author argues that race, wealth and geog­ra­phy play a more sig­nif­i­cant role in deter­min­ing who faces cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment than the facts of the crime itself. Both defen­dants had sig­nif­i­cant claims of inno­cence; both were black defen­dants who were ulti­mate­ly exe­cut­ed in the South; in both cas­es, the vic­tim in the under­ly­ing mur­der was white. Graham was exe­cut­ed in Texas in 2000 and Davis was exe­cut­ed in Georgia in 2011. Rust-Tierney writes, ​“How do you admin­is­ter the most severe pun­ish­ment imag­in­able in a man­ner that is accu­rate, free from bias and demon­stra­bly fair? Until we are all seen and treat­ed as equal, we can­not afford to keep cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment.” Ms. Rust-Tierney is an attor­ney and Executive Director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. Download a copy of the ebook here.

(D. Rust-Tierney, ​“The Death Penalty Failed Experiment: From Gary Graham to Troy Davis in Context,” McKinney & Associates, April 2012). The Death Penalty Failed Experiment is the sec­ond pub­li­ca­tion in McKinney & Associates’ Voice Matters: An eBook Series on Public Relations with a Conscience. See Arbitrariness and Race. Read more Books on the death penal­ty. Listen to DPIC’s Podcast on Arbitrariness.

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