Books

A new inter­na­tion­al man­u­al cov­er­ing psy­chi­atric and psy­cho­log­i­cal issues aris­ing in cap­i­tal cas­es has been pre­pared by a team of foren­sic psy­chi­a­trists for use by attor­neys, judges, and men­tal health offi­cials. The Handbook of Forensic Psychiatric Practice in Capital Cases sets out mod­el struc­tures for psy­chi­atric assess­ment and report writ­ing for every stage of a death penal­ty case, from pre-tri­al to exe­cu­tion. It also dis­cuss­es eth­i­cal issues, par­tic­u­lar­ly with regard to an inmate’s com­pe­tence to be exe­cut­ed. The hand­book is pub­lished by The Death Penalty Project (DPP) and Forensic Psychiatry…

The Michigan Committee Against Capital Punishment has pub­lished a col­lec­tion of over 40 years of tes­ti­mo­ny, brochures, and oth­er infor­ma­tion by attor­ney and death-penal­ty expert Eugene Wanger. The col­lec­tion begins with the res­o­lu­tion from Michigan​’s 1962 con­sti­tu­tion­al con­ven­tion ban­ning cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the state. It includes Wanger’s tes­ti­mo­ny at numer­ous hear­ings oppos­ing bills attempt­ing to rein­state the death penal­ty, as well as brochures and short arti­cles. The bound and boxed vol­ume pro­vides a com­pre­hen­sive overview of the his­to­ry of death-penal­ty leg­is­la­tion in Michigan. Through leg­is­la­tion in 1846, the state became…

A forth­com­ing book, Fighting for Their Lives: Inside the Experience of Capital Defense Attorneys by Susannah Sheffer, explores the impact of the death penal­ty on defense attor­neys with clients on death row. Through inter­views with cap­i­tal defend­ers, the author exam­ines how attor­neys try to cope with the stress of rep­re­sent­ing clients fac­ing exe­cu­tion. Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking, said, ​“This is an impor­tant book. The death penal­ty’s impact is so much broad­er than we real­ize, and these attor­neys are affect­ed in ways that even I had not…

A new book by Professor Robert Bohm of the University of Central Florida exam­ines the per­son­al impact of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment on those involved in the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem, beyond the vic­tim and per­pe­tra­tor of the crime. Bohm lis­tened to those involved in all steps of the judi­cial process, includ­ing inves­ti­ga­tors, jurors, and the exe­cu­tion team. He has probed the effects of the death penal­ty on the fam­i­lies of both the mur­der vic­tim and the offend­er. The book, Capital Punishment’s Collateral Damage, includes tes­ti­mo­ni­als from mem­bers of each group, ​“allow­ing the…

A new book, ​“Where Justice and Mercy Meet: Catholic Opposition to the Death Penalty,” offers a com­pre­hen­sive dis­cus­sion of Catholic teach­ing on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. It explores a wide range of issues relat­ed to the death penal­ty, includ­ing racism, men­tal ill­ness, and eco­nom­ic dis­par­i­ties. The book is edit­ed by Trudy Conway and David Matzko McCarthy, both pro­fes­sors at Mount St. Mary’s University, and Vicki Schieber – the moth­er of a mur­der vic­tim. It includes a fore­word by Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking. Joseph A. Fiorenza, Archbishop Emeritus of Galveston-Houston, said…

A new book, Race, Rape, and Injustice: Documenting and Challenging Death Penalty Cases in the Civil Rights Era, recounts the fas­ci­nat­ing sto­ry of twen­ty-eight law stu­dents who trav­eled through­out the South in the 1960s to gath­er data about the use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in rape cas­es. They found the death penal­ty was used almost exclu­sive­ly against black defen­dants accused of rap­ing white women. The book was large­ly writ­ten by Barrett Foerster, one of the stu­dents, and then com­plet­ed after his death by Michael Meltsner, an attor­ney at the NAACP Legal…

The lat­est edi­tion of the edu­ca­tion­al text, The Death Penalty in a Nutshell by Victor Streib, is now avail­able. Prof. Streib presents the sub­stan­tive and pro­ce­dur­al law of cap­i­tal cas­es, along with its rel­e­vant his­to­ry, jurispru­dence and con­sti­tu­tion­al appli­ca­tions. Streib also address­es inter­na­tion­al issues, the com­plex role of defense coun­sel, the risk of sys­temic bias, and the poten­tial exe­cu­tion of inno­cent defen­dants. This new edi­tion pro­vides an analy­sis of emerg­ing trends in the death penal­ty, includ­ing that few­er states have the death penal­ty on their books, few­er cap­i­tal offend­ers are…

A new book by Professor Robert Bohm of the University of Central Florida looks at death-penal­ty deci­sions by the U.S. Supreme Court pri­or to the mod­ern era of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment that began in 1968. In The Past As Prologue, Bohm exam­ines 39 Court deci­sions, cov­er­ing issues such as clemen­cy, jury selec­tion, coerced con­fes­sions, and effec­tive rep­re­sen­ta­tion. These ear­ly deci­sions have shaped mod­ern rul­ings on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, and the book pro­vides an analy­sis of these effects. In addi­tion, the cas­es pro­vide an his­tor­i­cal per­spec­tive on pri­or death penal­ty prac­tices. Bohm is…

Survivor on Death Row, a new e‑book co-authored by death row inmate Romell Broom and Clare Nonhebel, tells the sto­ry of Ohio​’s botched attempt to exe­cute Broom by lethal injec­tion in 2009. In September of that year, Broom was read­ied for exe­cu­tion and placed on the gur­ney, but the pro­ce­dure was ter­mi­nat­ed after cor­rec­tions offi­cials spent over two hours attempt­ing to find a suit­able vein for the lethal injec­tion. Broom was removed from the death cham­ber and has remained on death row ever since. In the book, Broom dis­cuss­es his…