The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions
by Helen Prejean
(Click here)
Book Summary Information
Author: Helen PrejeanEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-01-24
ISBN: 0679759484
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Vintage
Summary of The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions
From the author of the national bestseller Dead Man Walking comes a brave and fiercely argued new book that tests the moral edge of the debate on capital punishment: What if we?re executing innocent men? Two cases in point are Dobie Gillis Williams, an indigent black man with an IQ of 65, and Joseph Roger O?Dell. Both were convicted of murder on flimsy evidence (O?Dell?s principal accuser was a jailhouse informant who later recanted his testimony). Both were executed in spite of numerous appeals. Sister Helen Prejean watched both of them die.As she recounts these men?s cases and takes us through their terrible last moments, Prejean brilliantly dismantles the legal and religious arguments that have been used to justify the death penalty. Riveting, moving, and ultimately damning, The Death of Innocents is a book we dare not ignore.Since the 1993 publication of her memoir Dead Man Walking and the 1995 film it inspired, Sister Helen Prejean has become a powerful and articulate presence in the fight against the death penalty in America. In The Death of Innocents, Prejean focuses her argument on the ways in which an unjust system may be killing innocent people. She tells the story of two inmates she came to know as a spiritual adviser. Dobie Williams, a poor black man with an IQ of 65 from rural Louisiana, was executed after being represented by incompetent counsel and found guilty by an all-white jury based mostly on conjecture and speculation. Joseph O'Dell was convicted of murder after the court heard from an inmate who later admitted to giving false testimony for his own benefit. O'Dell received neither an evidentiary hearing nor potentially exculpatory DNA testing and was executed, insisting on his innocence the whole while. Besides exploring the shaky cases against them, Prejean describes in vivid detail the thoughts and feelings of Williams and O'Dell as their bids for clemency fail and they are put to death. The second part of the book details "the machinery of death," the legal process that Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, dismayed at the inequities of the death penalty, cited as his reason for resigning and that current justice Antonin Scalia has boasted of being a part of. Prejean is impassioned as she describes what she sees as an arrogant attitude by both Scalia and the contemporary judicial system. Her chance confrontation with Scalia at an airport is a gripping collision of disparate worlds. In recent years, DNA testing has overturned the convictions of scores of prisoners, including many on death row. As the death penalty is increasingly called into question, Sister Helen Prejean will surely be a force in that debate. --John Moe
Civil Rights Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Civil Rights Books
Human Rights Act 1998 (Meaning of Public Authority) Bill (House of Commons Bills)by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons
Stationery Office Books; Published: 2009-06-25; Paperback; Book
Textbook on Civil Liberties and Human Rightsby Richard Stone
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2006-11-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.05
Price in other shops:
Individual Rights and Private Party Judicial Review in the EU (Oxford European Community Law Library)by Angela Ward
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2007-05-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $26.40
Price in other shops:
Defamation and Freedom of Speechby Dario Milo
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2008-04-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $92.34
Price in other shops:
A Reader on Resourcing Civil Justice (Oxford Readings in Socio-Legal Studies)Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1997-03-27; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
The Treatment of Prisoners under International Lawby Nigel S. Rodley
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1987-04-09; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
Indigenous People's Rights in Australia, Canada and New ZealandOxford University Press, USA; Published: 1999-05-20; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
A History of Civil Litigation: Political and Economic Perspectivesby Frank J. Vandall
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2011-01-19; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $57.00
Price in other shops:
Reparations: Pro and Conby Alfred L. Brophy
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2006-09-14; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $28.71
Price in other shops:
The Supreme Court on Church and Stateby Robert S. Alley
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1988-05-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $44.97
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Queers in Court: Gay Rights Law and Public Policyby Susan Gluck Mezey
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers; Published: 2007-03-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $29.40
Price in other shops:
What Lies Beneath: Katrina, Race, and the State of the Nationby The South End Press Collective
South End Press; Published: 2007-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.85
Price in other shops:
Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemptionby Jennifer Thompson-Cannino, Ronald Cotton, Erin Torneo
St. Martin's Press; Published: 2009-03-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.25
Price in other shops:
Death Penalty Cases, Third Edition: Leading U.S. Supreme Court Cases on Capital Punishmentby Barry Latzer JD Ph.D., David McCord
Butterworth-Heinemann; Published: 2010-11-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $26.99
Price in other shops:
The Death Penalty: America's Experience with Capital Punishmentby Raymond Paternoster, Robert Brame, Sarah Bacon
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2007-07-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $29.85
Price in other shops:
Are Prisons Obsolete?by Angela Y. Davis
Seven Stories Press; Published: 2003-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops:
Actual Innocence: When Justice Goes Wrong and How to Make it Rightby Barry Scheck, Peter Neufeld, Jim Dwyer
NAL Trade; Published: 2003-12-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.08
Price in other shops:
Dead Man WalkingSARANDON,SUSAN; Release date: 2000-01-01; Published: 2000-01-01; DVD
Best price: $6.23
Price in other shops:
Forgiving the Dead Man Walking: Only One Woman Can Tell the Entire Storyby Debbie Morris
Zondervan; Published: 2000-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.75
Price in other shops:
Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty In The United Statesby Helen Prejean
NA; Vintage; Published: 1994-05-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.74
Price in other shops: