Books

Items: 141 — 150


Aug 20, 2008

BOOKS: Abolition, One Man’s Battle Against the Death Penalty

A com­pelling nar­ra­tive of the legal and polit­i­cal fight to end the death penal­ty in France has just been released in an English trans­la­tion. Abolition: One Man’s Battle Against the Death Penalty is authored by Robert Badinter, prob­a­bly the sin­gle per­son most respon­si­ble for abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty in France. He begins his sto­ry in 1972 when one of his clients was guil­lotined in a case he felt was unjust. Upon ded­i­cat­ing his career to abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty, he agreed to…

Read More

May 14, 2008

BOOKS: The Death Penalty: A Worldwide Perspective

The Death Penalty: A Worldwide Perspective by Roger Hood and Carolyn Hoyle is the Fourth Edition of a text that high­lights the lat­est devel­op­ments in the death penal­ty around the world. Roger Hood uti­lizes his expe­ri­ence as a con­sul­tant to the United Nations’ annu­al sur­vey of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in com­pil­ing a wide range of infor­ma­tion from non-gov­ern­men­tal orga­ni­za­tions and aca­d­e­m­ic lit­er­a­ture. The book explores both the advances in legal chal­lenges to the death penal­ty and the…

Read More

May 07, 2008

NEW VOICES: How New Jersey Abolished the Death Penalty”

In 1982, as a sec­ond term Assemblyman, Raymond Lesniak vot­ed to rein­state the death penal­ty in New Jersey. In December 2007, New Jersey vot­ed to abol­ish the death penal­ty, becom­ing the first state in 40 years to accom­plish this. Senator Lesniak was one of the spon­sors and leg­isla­tive lead­ers of the abo­li­tion bill. He has writ­ten a new book: The Road to Abolition: How New Jersey Abolished the Death Penatly.” In com­ment­ing on the book, Senator Lesniak said, Why do I care so much about the…

Read More

Mar 11, 2008

BOOKS: Last Rights” by Rev. Joseph Ingle with Introduction by Mike Farrell

Reverend Joseph B. Ingle’s book, Last Rights: Thirteen Fatal Encounters with the State’s Justice, will be re-released in May with a new intro­duc­tion by Mike Farrell (of M*A*S*H*) and with its orig­i­nal for­ward by William Styron. Rev. Ingle, who has coun­seled inmates on death row for over 30 years, recounts his close rela­tion­ships with 13 of these inmates before their exe­cu­tions. Devoting a chap­ter to each one, Ingle stress­es the need to see each inmate as an indi­vid­ual. He writes, The…

Read More

Mar 04, 2008

BOOKS: The Innocence Commission

The Innocence Commission, a new book by Jon B. Gould, describes how the advent of DNA test­ing and oth­er foren­sic advances in the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem have led to seri­ous efforts to under­stand how so many wrong­ful con­vic­tions have hap­pened. In par­tic­u­lar, The Innocence Commission details the first years of the Innocence Commission for Virginia (ICVA), which was the first in the coun­try to con­duct sys­temic research into all wrong­ful con­vic­tions in the state. Gould, the Chair of ICVA,…

Read More

Feb 21, 2008

BOOKS: The Execution of Willie Francis”

Author Gilbert King, in his forth­com­ing book The Execution of Willie Francis, details the sto­ry of a young African-American man who endured the elec­tric chair twice before being exe­cut­ed for the mur­der of a white man in Louisiana. In 1946, an all-white jury con­vict­ed Francis, who was 17, and sen­tenced him to death. The first attempt to exe­cute him by elec­tro­cu­tion did not work, and Francis was returned to his death row cell where he remained for almost anoth­er year while the U.S.

Read More

Jan 24, 2008

BOOKS: Crime and Justice: Abolishing the Death Penalty”

The Inter Press Service, with the assis­tance of the European Commission, has recent­ly pub­lished Crime and Justice: Abolishing the Death Penalty,” col­lect­ing more than 100 reports from dozens of coun­tries and every con­ti­nent. IPS used the voic­es of those who work direct­ly with the death penal­ty issue to present a world-wide pic­ture of the sta­tus of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. The sto­ries told in the report are from activists, aca­d­e­mics, lawyers and death row inmates. They range from dis­patch­es from…

Read More

Jan 14, 2008

BOOKS: The Bitter Fruit of American Justice” and I Shall Not Die”

Two new books address the death penal­ty from dif­fer­ent per­spec­tives: one ana­lyz­ing the future of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, the oth­er, by Billy Neal Moore, relates the expe­ri­ence of being on death row. Alan Clarke and Laurelyn Whitt exam­ine two fac­tors that are gain­ing impor­tance in the debate over cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. The Bitter Fruit of American Justice (Northeastern 2007) con­tends that increas­ing oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty through­out the world could affect how oth­er coun­tries relate…

Read More

Jan 07, 2008

BOOKS: New Book Explores Death Penalty Myths

In The Top Ten Death Penalty Myths, pro­fes­sors Rudolph J. Gerber and John M. Johnson explore ten argu­ments used to sup­port the death penal­ty and pro­vide read­ers with cur­rent research and stud­ies chal­leng­ing these argu­ments. The authors show how polit­i­cal and com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers have used myth and emo­tion­al appeals to mis­rep­re­sent the facts about cap­i­tal exe­cu­tions.” Each chap­ter begins with a state­ment in sup­port of the death penal­ty based on themes such as deter­rence, vic­tims and their…

Read More