In Waiting to Die: Life on Death Row,” Richard M. Rossi pro­vides a first-hand account of his dai­ly life on Arizona’s death row. Rossi was sen­tenced to death in 1983 and has tak­en respon­si­bil­i­ty for the mur­der he com­mit­ted. He was orig­i­nal­ly offered a plea bar­gain with a life sen­tence, but he decid­ed to go to tri­al. He has been on death row for 20 years. In his book, Rossi details how pris­on­ers sur­vive on death row, the con­di­tions under which they live, and the psy­cho­log­i­cal toll that liv­ing under a sen­tence of death takes on pris­on­ers. He also pro­vides a straight­for­ward account of prison poli­cies reg­u­lat­ing all aspects of dai­ly life. (Vision Paperbacks, 2004) See Resources.

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