Executed on a Technicality: Lethal Injustice on America’s Death Row, by Professor David Dow, is a behind-the-scenes look at the death penal­ty through the lens of an attor­ney who for­mer­ly sup­port­ed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Dow, who teach­es at the University of Houston Law Center and found­ed the Texas Innocence Network, pro­vides case his­to­ries illus­trat­ing seri­ous flaws in the death penal­ty sys­tem. He uses these cas­es to guide read­ers through a web of coerced con­fes­sions, incom­pe­tent rep­re­sen­ta­tion, racist juries, and unfair judges, all of which he believes con­tribute to the arbi­trari­ness of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment.

In many cas­es, obscure tech­ni­cal­i­ties in the law pre­vent­ed courts and juries from hear­ing evi­dence that would have pre­vent­ed an exe­cu­tion or a death sen­tence. Dow relates the case of one man who was exe­cut­ed because the jury nev­er heard from two eye­wit­ness­es who swore he was not the mur­der­er. In anoth­er case, a man was allowed to rep­re­sent him­self despite the fact that his men­tal imbal­ance — as evi­denced by his attempts to issue a sub­poe­na to Jesus Christ and dress­ing as a cow­boy dur­ing the tri­al — was obvi­ous. (Beacon Press, April 2005). See Resources.

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