In this Book
- Facing the Death Penalty: Essays on a Cruel and Unusual Punishment
- Book
- 2011
- Published by: Temple University Press
summary
"These essays...show us the human and inhuman realities of capital punishment through the eyes of the condemned and those who work with them. By focusing on those awaiting death, they present the awful truth behind the statistics in concrete, personal terms."
--William J. Bowers, author of Legal Homicide
Between 1930 and 1967, there were 3,859 executions carried out under state and civil authority in the United States. Since the ten-year moratorium on capital punishment ended in 1977, more than one hundred prisoners have been executed. There are more than two thousand men and women now living on death row awaiting their executions. Facing the Death Penalty offers an in-depth examination of what life under a sentence of death is like for condemned inmates and their families, how and why various professionals assist them in their struggle for life, and what these personal experiences with capital punishment tell us about the wisdom of this penal policy.
The contributors include historians, attorneys, sociologists, anthropologists, criminologists, a minister, a philosopher, and three prisoners. One of the prisoner-contributors is Willie Jasper Darden, Jr., whose case and recent execution after fourteen years on death row drew international attention. The inter-disciplinary perspectives offered in this book will not solve the death penalty debate, but they offer important and unique insights on the full effects of American capital punishment provisions. While the book does not set out to generate sympathy for those convicted of horrible crimes, taken together, the essays build a case for abolition of the death penalty.
"This work stands with the best of what's been written. It represents the best of those who have seen the worst."
--Colman McCarthy, The Washington Post Book World
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- 1. Introduction and Overview
- pp. 3-15
- 2. The Fraternity of Death
- pp. 16-26
- 3. Facing the Death Penalty
- pp. 27-37
- 6. Another Attorney for Life
- pp. 81-91
- 11. The Death Penalty and Anthropology
- pp. 156-168
- 12. Working the Dead
- pp. 169-177
- 13. How to Argue About the Death Penalty
- pp. 178-192
- 14. The Pains of Life
- pp. 193-197
- 15. The Isolation of Death Row
- pp. 198-202
- 16. An Inhumane Way of Death
- pp. 203-205
- About the Authors
- pp. 207-209
Additional Information
ISBN
9781439907801
Related ISBN(s)
9780877226116, 9780877227212
MARC Record
OCLC
711000186
Pages
228
Launched on MUSE
2012-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No
Copyright
1990