Books

A new book writ­ten by Jim and Nancy Petro offers a com­pre­hen­sive analy­sis of how mis­car­riages of jus­tice result in wrong­ful con­vic­tions. Jim Petro, a for­mer Republican Attorney General of Ohio, has observed the jus­tice sys­tem from all sides and was appalled by the fre­quent mis­takes in the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem. As attor­ney gen­er­al, he advo­cat­ed along with the Innocence Project to help free a man wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed of mur­der and rape. In ​“False Justice,” the Petros expose a series of myths and mis­con­cep­tions about the American jus­tice sys­tem, such…

Amnesty International recent­ly released its annu­al report on inter­na­tion­al abus­es and progress in the field of human rights: ​“The State of the World’s Human Rights.” The report cov­ers January to December 2009 and address­es human rights issues in every coun­try around the world. The report also high­lights coun­tries’ involve­ment in inter­na­tion­al and region­al human rights treaties. Among the nations in the Americas, the United States had the most active death penal­ty prac­tices with over 100 new death sen­tences and 52 exe­cu­tions. Although death sen­tences were hand­ed down in the Bahamas,…

Voices of the Death Penalty Debate: A Citizen’s Guide to Capital Punishment is a new book that explores argu­ments for and against the death penal­ty through tes­ti­mo­ny giv­en at the his­toric 2004 and 2005 hear­ings in New York on whether the state’s death penal­ty should be rein­stat­ed. The state’s law was struck down by the N.Y. Court of Appeals in 2004. Authored by Russell Murphy, a Suffolk University Law School pro­fes­sor, the book walks read­ers through tes­ti­mo­ny from experts, ordi­nary cit­i­zens, vic­tims, orga­ni­za­tions, reli­gious lead­ers, and indi­vid­u­als who had been…

The Last Gasp: The Rise and Fall of the American Gas Chamber details the his­to­ry and devel­op­ment of the gas cham­ber as a method of exe­cu­tion in the United States. Author Scott Christianson explores con­nec­tions between the gas cham­ber and the eugen­ics move­ment, as well as new evi­dence about Hitler’s adop­tion of gas cham­ber tech­nol­o­gy devel­oped in the United States. Charles Lanier, Director of the Capital Punishment Research Initiative, said, ​“Scott Christianson has used his exten­sive expe­ri­ence as an inves­tiga­tive reporter, crim­i­nal jus­tice offi­cial, his­to­ri­an, and schol­ar to probe one…

Last Words of the Executed by Robert K. Elder is a com­pi­la­tion of the final state­ments of death row inmates short­ly before their exe­cu­tion. The book, with a fore­word by Studs Terkel, also describes the crime and some of the social set­ting of each case pre­sent­ed. According to a review in The Economist, ​“The last words are remark­able for their remorse, humour, hatred, res­ig­na­tion, fear and brava­do…. America’s diverse her­itage is stamped even onto its killers’ final moments.” Sister Helen Prejean wrote, ​“This is a dan­ger­ous book. Who knows how…

“Condemned” is a com­pi­la­tion of the cor­re­spon­dence between Irish author Sean O’ Riain and an inmate on death row in the United States, known as ​“Ray” in the book. Riain became involved in writ­ing let­ters to a death row inmate through the Comunita di Sant’Egidio, an orga­ni­za­tion in Rome that part­ners death row inmates with pen­friends around the world. ​“Ray” is on death row for killing a man – -a crime he com­mit­ted at a young age, and now freely admits and deeply regrets. Among the many glimpses of life on death…

Wilbert Rideau, a for­mer death row inmate in Louisiana who has since been released from prison, recent­ly pub­lished his mem­oir, In the Place of Justice: A Story of Punishment and Deliverance. Rideau was sen­tenced to death at the age of 19 for killing a woman in pan­ic dur­ing a botched rob­bery attempt. While on death row, he under­went a trans­for­ma­tion and, after his sen­tence was com­mut­ed to life, he became the edi­tor of The Angolite, an award-win­ning prison mag­a­zine that exposed abus­es in the cor­rec­tion­al sys­tem by guards and inmates…

Messages of Life from Death Row fea­tures cor­re­spon­dence from Texas death row inmate Roger McGowen to soci­ol­o­gist and writer Pierre Pradervand. McGowen’s let­ters describe his life on death row and point to flaws in the American crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem, espe­cial­ly the arbi­trary nature of the death penal­ty. The pub­lish­er, BookSurge, said the book offers a ​“unique jux­ta­po­si­tion of care­ful­ly select­ed texts next to the heart­felt and mem­o­rable let­ters writ­ten by McGowen … giv[ing] read­ers a his­tor­i­cal, eth­i­cal and prag­mat­ic overview of American crim­i­nal jus­tice as well as an inside view…

A new book by David Dow, The Autobiography of an Execution, cap­tures the author’s per­son­al and legal expe­ri­ences in rep­re­sent­ing over 100 inmates on death row. The book is a per­son­al mem­oir of Dow’s encounter with the death penal­ty sys­tem, as he rep­re­sents defen­dants and wit­ness­es their exe­cu­tions. Publisher’s Weekly called the book ​“sober­ing, grip­ping and can­did.” Dahlia Lithwick of Slate said it is ​“a pow­er­ful col­lage of the life of a death penal­ty lawyer,” in a NY Times book review (Feb. 14, 2010).