Books

A new book by Larry Koch, Colin Wark and John Galliher dis­cuss­es the sta­tus of the death penal­ty in the U.S. in light of recent leg­isla­tive activ­i­ty and court deci­sions. In The Death of the American Death Penalty, the authors exam­ine the impact of fac­tors such as eco­nom­ic con­di­tions, pub­lic sen­ti­ment, the role of elites, the media, and pop­u­la­tion diver­si­ty on the death penal­ty debate. The book high­lights the recent abo­li­tion deci­sions in New York, New Jersey, New Mexico, and Illinois, and the sur­pris­ing decline of the death penal­ty even…

A new book by Professor Harry M. Ward of the University of Richmond exam­ines the death penal­ty in Virginia at a time when exe­cu­tions were car­ried out for all to see. In Public Executions in Richmond, Virginia: A History, 1782 – 1907, Ward pro­vides a his­to­ry of the hang­ings and, dur­ing the Civil War, fir­ing-squad exe­cu­tions in Virginia’s cap­i­tal city. Thousands of wit­ness­es attend­ed the exe­cu­tions, which were seen as a form of enter­tain­ment. Public exe­cu­tions end­ed with the intro­duc­tion of the elec­tric chair in 1908. In 1995, Virginia adopt­ed lethal injection…

A new book by Professors Saundra Westervelt and Kimberly Cook looks at the lives of eigh­teen peo­ple who had been wrong­ful­ly sen­tenced to death and who were lat­er freed from death row. In Life After Death Row: Exonerees’ Search for Community and Identity, the authors focus on three cen­tral areas affect­ing those who had to begin a new life after leav­ing years of severe con­fine­ment: the seem­ing invis­i­bil­i­ty of these indi­vid­u­als after their release; the com­plic­i­ty of the jus­tice sys­tem in allow­ing that invis­i­bil­i­ty; and the need for each of…

Long-time death penal­ty schol­ar Hugo Adam Bedau died on August 13, 2012 . Dr. Bedau had been the Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University, and is best known for his work on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Dr. Bedau fre­quent­ly tes­ti­fied about the death penal­ty before the U.S. Congress and many state leg­is­la­tures. He authored sev­er­al books about the death penal­ty, includ­ing The Death Penalty in America (1964; 4^th edi­tion, 1997), The Courts, the Constitution, and Capital Punishment (1977), Death is Different (1987), and Killing as Punishment (2004), and co-authored…

A new elec­tron­ic book by for­mer jour­nal­ist Peter Rooney offers an in-depth look at the case of Joseph Burrows, who was exon­er­at­ed from Illinois’s death row in 1996. In Die Free: A True Story of Murder, Betrayal and Miscarried Justice, Rooney explains how Burrows was sen­tenced to death for the mur­der of William Dulin based on snitch tes­ti­mo­ny. He was con­vict­ed pri­mar­i­ly on the word of Gayle Potter, who recant­ed her tes­ti­mo­ny eight years lat­er and admit­ted to com­mit­ting the crime her­self. According to one review, ​“Rooney makes it clear…

A new book by Clive Stafford Smith, a British lawyer who has defend­ed death row inmates in the U.S., offers an in-depth view of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in America. In Injustice: Life and Death in the Courtrooms of America, Stafford Smith exam­ines the case of Kris Maharaj, a British cit­i­zen who was sen­tenced to death in Florida for a dou­ble mur­der, to expose prob­lems in the jus­tice sys­tem. The book reveals dis­turb­ing details of Maharaj’s case, includ­ing anom­alies in the pros­e­cu­tion files – wit­ness­es with excul­pa­to­ry tes­ti­mo­ny who were nev­er called, fal­si­fied and…

The American Bar Association recent­ly pub­lished The State of Criminal Justice 2012, an annu­al report that exam­ines major issues, trends and sig­nif­i­cant changes in America’s crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem. This pub­li­ca­tion serves as a valu­able resource for aca­d­e­mics, stu­dents, and pol­i­cy-mak­ers in the area of crim­i­nal jus­tice, and con­tains 24 chap­ters focus­ing on spe­cif­ic areas of the crim­i­nal jus­tice field. The chap­ter devot­ed to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment was writ­ten by Ronald Tabak, spe­cial coun­sel and pro bono coor­di­na­tor at Skadden Arps. Tabak address­es the decline in the use of the death penalty,…

A new book by Professor Jody Lynee’ Madeira of the Indiana University School of Law fol­lows the after­math of the Oklahoma City bomb­ing to explore whether the fam­i­lies of mur­der vic­tims obtain clo­sure from an exe­cu­tion. In Killing McVeigh: The Death Penalty and the Myth of Closure, Prof. Madeira recounts her wide range of inter­views with those who expe­ri­enced this tragedy first-hand. Regarding the book, Professor Carol Steiker of Harvard said, ​“Everyone seems to have an opin­ion about whether the exe­cu­tion of mur­ders can offer ​‘clo­sure’ to the vic­tims’ loved…

A new book pub­lished in elec­tron­ic for­mat, The Death Penalty Failed Experiment: From Gary Graham to Troy Davis in Context by Diann Rust-Tierney, exam­ines the prob­lem of arbi­trari­ness in the death penal­ty since its rein­state­ment in 1976. Through an analy­sis of the cas­es of Gary Graham and Troy Davis, the author argues that race, wealth and geog­ra­phy play a more sig­nif­i­cant role in deter­min­ing who faces cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment than the facts of the crime itself. Both defen­dants had sig­nif­i­cant claims of inno­cence; both were black defen­dants who were ulti­mate­ly executed…

A new book, ​“The Inferno: A Southern Morality Tale,” by Joseph Ingle, chron­i­cles the com­pelling sto­ry of Philip Workman, who was exe­cut­ed in Tennessee in 2007. The author, a min­is­ter of the United Church of Christ who has spent decades work­ing with those on death row, served as Mr. Workman’s pas­tor and tells the sto­ry from his own view­point, as well as those of oth­ers famil­iar with the case. Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking, called The Inferno ​“the most detailed, inti­mate and com­plete look at a death…