Books

“Blue Rage, Black Redemption: A Memoir” by Stanley Tookie Williams is a first-hand account of Williams’ per­son­al jour­ney from co-found­ing the noto­ri­ous Crips gang to becom­ing a reformed pris­on­er and activist for youth from behind bars on California’s death row. The book, which has an epi­logue by Barbara Becnel and a fore­ward by Tavis Smiley, details how Williams became a pow­er­ful anti-gang activist dur­ing the two decades he spent on death row pri­or to his December 2005 exe­cu­tion. Williams’ book open­ly dis­cuss­es the life of drugs and vio­lence that…

In ​“Jingle Jangle,” author Jim Rix tells the sto­ry of his cousin, Ray Krone, who was wrong­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to die in 1992 for the mur­der of a bar­tender in Phoenix. The book details efforts to exon­er­ate Krone, includ­ing the impor­tant role Rix played in inves­ti­gat­ing his cous­in’s inno­cence claim. ​“Jingle Jangle” reveals how inac­cu­rate tes­ti­mo­ny from a foren­sic sci­ence expert and pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct led to Krone’s wrong­ful con­vic­tion. It also close­ly exam­ines oth­er prob­lems that impact­ed the case, includ­ing police cor­rup­tion, faulty eye­wit­ness tes­ti­mo­ny, and jury tam­per­ing. Sister…

“The Death Penalty: America’s Experience with Capital Punishment” by Professors Raymond Paternoster, Robert Brame, and Sarah Bacon is a com­pre­hen­sive review of the death penal­ty in the U.S. Issues cov­ered include the his­to­ry of the death penal­ty in America and the chang­ing nature of the U.S. death penal­ty, includ­ing such top­ics as eli­gi­ble crimes, tri­al pro­ce­dures, and meth­ods of exe­cu­tion. In addi­tion, the book cov­ers ques­tions about the influ­ence of race on the death penal­ty, the exe­cu­tion of inno­cent per­sons, death row exon­er­a­tions, and flaws in the death penal­ty system.…

A new book by Bruce Watson exam­ines the case of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two Italian immi­grants whose guilt remains in seri­ous doubt eight decades after Massachusetts car­ried out their death sen­tences. The book, ​“Sacco & Vanzetti: The Men, the Murders, and the Judgment of Mankind” (Viking, 2007), pro­vides a fac­tu­al account of the case sur­round­ing the two men, who were con­vict­ed of steal­ing a shoe fac­to­ry’s pay envelopes and killing four peo­ple in the crime. Watson’s inves­ti­ga­tion found that there were as many dif­fer­ent accounts of the crime…

A new book by Charles D. Flores details his per­son­al expe­ri­ence as an inmate on Texas’ death row. The book, Warrior Within: Inside Report on Texas Death Row, pro­vides a first-hand account of Flores’ death penal­ty tri­al and his expe­ri­ences await­ing exe­cu­tion. It explores his quest to learn more about the law as he fights to prove his inno­cence and win his free­dom. In the book, Flores writes, ​“I start­ed to com­pre­hend what it meant to be on death row. I was begin­ning to under­stand it was a race against…

In the third edi­tion of what some have called ​“the first true text­book on the death penal­ty,” author Robert Bohm, a cor­rec­tion­al offi­cer turned col­lege pro­fes­sor, engages the read­er with a full account of the argu­ments and issues sur­round­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. His book, ​“DeathQuest III: An Introduction to the Theory & Practice of Capital Punishment in the United States,” begins with the his­to­ry of the death penal­ty from colo­nial to mod­ern times, and then exam­ines the moral and legal argu­ments for and against cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. It also pro­vides an overview…

In his new book, ​“The Big Eddy Club: The Stocking Stranglings and Southern Justice,” author David Rose exam­ines issues of race and the death penal­ty. The book relates the sto­ry of Carlton Gary, who was con­vict­ed of cap­i­tal mur­der in 1986 and remains on Georgia’s death row for the rape and mur­der of sev­er­al elder­ly women in Columbus, Georgia. Rose, a con­tribut­ing edi­tor at Vanity Fair, links Gary’s con­vic­tion to a his­to­ry of bias in Columbus and the South. ​“The Big Eddy Club” details the con­nec­tions between past and…

“Towards the Abolition of the Death Penalty in Africa: A Human Rights Perspective” is a new book by Lilian Chenwi that exam­ines the his­to­ry of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in Africa and the con­ti­nen­t’s emerg­ing trend away from the death penal­ty. In her book, Chenwi details the impact that both inter­na­tion­al human rights orga­ni­za­tions and inter­na­tion­al treaties have had on shift­ing African views about cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. This resource includes chap­ters on the his­to­ry and cur­rent state of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in Africa, the right to life in the con­ti­nent, and a review…

In ​“Dead Wrong: Violence, Vengeance, and the Victims of Capital Punishment,” author Richard Stack uses cas­es to exam­ine three of the main caus­es of wrong­ful con­vic­tions — mis­tak­en eye­wit­ness tes­ti­mo­ny, offi­cial mis­con­duct, and incom­pe­tent coun­sel. Stack, a pro­fes­sor at American University’s School of Communication, based the book on three years of research con­duct­ed with the assis­tance of stu­dents enrolled in his pub­lic com­mu­ni­ca­tion class­es. He said that he wrote the book to ​“put a human face” on the issue of wrong­ful con­vic­tions, a con­cern that unites both sup­port­ers and opponents…