NCJ Number
128561
Date Published
1990
Length
300 pages
Annotation
The author, a prison chaplain who has spent much time with death row inmates and their families, writes of his experiences with 13 death-row inmates who were subsequently executed.
Abstract
The book provides the author's personal perspective on the capital punishment process as experienced by the 13 death-row inmates. He portrays the humanity of each of the inmates, alleges the arbitrariness and torture of capital punishment, and offers a unique perspective on people who have been executed. In the concluding chapter, the book argues that the policy of capital punishment exposes one of the weaknesses of democracy, i.e., the tyranny of the majority against the minority. The majority in this case refers to those who for various reasons support capital punishment. The minority consists of those convicted of heinous crimes, typically against white victims. The author reasons that the death penalty has no practical purpose but to exorcise the public of its fear of crime. It is a mechanism for the majority to exterminate a segment of the population that it fears. The author condemns capital punishment as a "systematic killing process unworthy of a democratic people and that shames us in the eyes of the civilized world and in the sight of God." 4 notes