Books

Murdering Myths: The Story Behind the Death Penalty, a book by Judith W. Kay, uses the per­son­al expe­ri­ences of both crime vic­tims’ fam­i­lies and those on death row to exam­ine America’s beliefs about crime and pun­ish­ment. Noting that researchers have raised ques­tions about the exe­cu­tion of inno­cent peo­ple, racial bias in sen­tenc­ing, and cap­i­tal pun­ish­men­t’s fail­ure to act as a deter­rent, Kay asks why Americans still sup­port the death penal­ty. She uses inter­views with those most closely impacted…

“The Dreams of Ada” by Robert Mayer tells a sto­ry strik­ing­ly sim­i­lar to that recount­ed by John Grisham in ​“The Innocent Man.” Each book involves the mur­der of a young woman from Ada, Oklahoma in the ear­ly 1980s. In both cas­es, there are two defen­dants whose con­vic­tions rely on lit­tle pro­ba­tive evi­dence but involve ​“con­fes­sions” that emerged from a dream. Both pros­e­cu­tions were led by Bill Peterson and both involved the same jail-house infor­mant. The defen­dants in Mayer’s book,…

On October 10^th, 2006, John Grisham​’s first non-fic­tion book, The Innocent Man, will be released. The book is the com­pelling true sto­ry of Ron Williamson, a for­mer home­town base­ball hero of Ada, Oklahoma, who was con­vict­ed in 1988 of rap­ing and mur­der­ing Debbie Carter. In 1999, Williamson was exon­er­at­ed of the crime after serv­ing eleven years on death row. In the con­text of this case, Grisham address­es many of the fun­da­men­tal issues that sur­round the death penal­ty in the United States.

Christopher Slobogin of the University of Florida’s Law School has writ­ten a new book about the state’s legal author­i­ty to deprive peo­ple with men­tal dis­abil­i­ties of life or lib­er­ty. The book dis­cuss­es a num­ber of well known cas­es such as that of John Hinckley and Andrea Yates. It also includes dis­cus­sion of laws deal­ing with the insan­i­ty defense, the death penal­ty, com­mit­ment of sex­u­al preda­tors, and hos­pi­tal­iza­tion of peo­ple con­sid­ered unable to make ratio­nal deci­sions. The book advances…

“Reflective Glass” is a new book by death row inmate G. Wilford Hathorn. The book is a col­lec­tion of fif­teen essays that deal with life on Texas’ death row from a pris­on­er’s per­spec­tive. The essays describe many aspects of death row life: the pain of los­ing friends through exe­cu­tion, the med­ical treat­ment of pris­on­ers, the monot­o­ny of liv­ing in a tiny cell, and the interaction with…

Back From The Dead: One woman’s search for the men who walked off America’s death row is the sto­ry of 589 for­mer death row inmates who, through a lot­tery of fate, were giv­en a sec­ond chance at life in 1972 when the death penal­ty was abol­ished. Joan Cheever, a for­mer edi­tor of the National Law Journal, who also rep­re­sent­ed a death row inmate in Texas, trav­eled the coun­try inter­view­ing inmates who had been con­demned to death but whose sen­tences were reduced to life when the U.S.

Researcher and for­mer law pro­fes­sor Harriet C. Frazier has pro­duced a thor­ough inves­tiga­tive work on the death penal­ty in Missouri: Death Sentences in Missouri, 1803 – 2005: A History and Comprehensive Registry of Legal Executions, Pardons, and Commutations. Building on the research of Watt Espy, Frazier dis­cov­ered accounts of many addi­tion­al exe­cu­tions in the state, espe­cial­ly in its ear­li­er years. She devotes chap­ters to such impor­tant areas as exe­cu­tions of Native Americans, blacks,…

The Prison and the Gallows: The Politics of Mass Incarceration in America is a new book by Marie Gottschalk of the University of Pennsylvania ana­lyz­ing the rea­sons behind the tremen­dous growth in the prison pop­u­la­tion in the United States. The book exam­ines issues of race, the inter­sec­tion of pris­ons with wom­en’s issues, and the con­se­quences of wide­spread incar­cer­a­tion on soci­ety and the econ­o­my. The author delves into the recent his­to­ry of the death penal­ty and relates it to…

“Legal Executions in California: A Comprehensive Registry, 1851 – 2005,” by researchers Sheila O’Hare, Irene Berry, and Jesse Silva, pro­vides com­pre­hen­sive infor­ma­tion on legal exe­cu­tions in California from 1851 to the present. Starting with the year the Criminal Practices Act first autho­rized exe­cu­tions in the state, the book’s entries are orga­nized by year of exe­cu­tion and con­tain the felon’s name, race, age at death and a detailed nar­ra­tive of the crime that result­ed in the death sentence.

Five books address­ing reli­gion and its role in cop­ing with vio­lent crime are now available:“Healing Violent Men: A Model for Christian Communities” — This book by reli­gion pro­fes­sor David Livingston explores domes­tic vio­lence. It offers prac­ti­cal advice for pas­toral and pro­gram­mat­ic efforts to embrace the twin Christian imper­a­tives of for­give­ness and respon­si­b­li­ty. (Fortress Press, 2002).“When Violence is No Stranger: Pastoral Counseling with Survivors of Acquaintance Rape” — In this book by…