Executed On A Technicality

When David Dow took his first capital case, he supported the death penalty. He changed his position as the men on death row became real people to him, and as he came to witness the profound injustices they endured: from coerced confessions to disconcertingly incompetent lawyers; from racist juries and backward judges to a highly arbitrary death penalty system. It is these concrete accounts of the people Dow has known and represented that prove the death penalty is consistently unjust, and it's precisely this fundamental-and lethal-injustice, Dow argues, that should compel us to abandon the system altogether.

Some beg for forgiveness. Others claim innocence. At least three cheer for their favorite football teams. Death waits for us all, but only those sentenced to death know the day and the hour—and only they can be sure that their last words will be recorded for posterity. Last Words of the Executed presents an oral history of American capital punishment, as heard from the gallows, the chair, and the gurney. The product of seven years of extensive research by journalist Robert K. Elder, the book explores the cultural value of these final statements and asks what we can learn from them. We hear from both the famous—such as Nathan Hale, Joe Hill, Ted Bundy, and John Brown—and the forgotten, and their words give us unprecedented glimpses into their lives, their crimes, and the world they inhabited. Organized by era and method of execution, these final statements range from heartfelt to horrific. Some are calls for peace or cries against injustice; others are accepting, confessional, or consoling; still others are venomous, rage-fueled diatribes. Even the chills evoked by some of these last words are brought on in part by the shared humanity we can’t ignore, their reminder that we all come to the same end, regardless of how we arrive there. Last Words of the Executed is not a political book. Rather, Elder simply asks readers to listen closely to these voices that echo history. The result is a riveting, moving testament from the darkest corners of society.

Until the early twentieth century, printed invitations to executions issued by lawmen were a vital part of the ritual of death concluding a criminal proceeding in the United States. In this study, Gordon Morris Bakken invites readers to an understanding of the death penalty in America with a collection of essays that trace the history and politics of this highly charged moral, legal, and cultural issue. Bakken has solicited essays from historians, political scientists, and lawyers to ensure a broad treatment of the evolution of American cultural attitudes about crime and capital punishment. Part one of this extensive analysis focuses on politics, legal history, multicultural issues, and the international aspects of the death penalty. Part two offers a regional analysis with essays that put death penalty issues into a geographic and cultural context. Part three focuses on specific states with emphasis on the need to understand capital punishment in terms of state law development, particularly because states determine on whom the death penalty will be imposed. Part four examines the various means of death, from hanging to lethal injection, in state law case studies. And finally, part five focuses on the portrayal of capital punishment in popular culture.

In America, liberalism brings prosperity to the majority? False. In America, "anything is possible" for those who work hard? False. In America, the unemployment rate is minimal? False. In America, poverty is relative and the poor live "like modest Europeans?" False. In America, those excluded from the health care system receive free care when they really need it? False—really false. In an excellent investigation, with clear and relevant examples, Michel Desmurget shatters the myth of a beautiful and prosperous America where everyone can succeed as long as they are hardworking and courageous. Taking the opposite view of the current dominant discourse on the virtues of the Anglo-Saxon liberal model, the author writes a disconcerting antithesis, based on American researchers, sociologists and journalists who have studied the failures of the American model and who, for the most part, recommend surprisingly European solutions (universal social security, introduction of a minimum wage indexed to inflation, federalized education, etc.). Michel Desmurget is a doctor of neuropsychology. He attended several major American universities (MIT, Emory, UCSF) and is now a research director at INSERM in cognitive neuroscience. He is particularly interested in the problems of brain organization and plasticity. He is the author of the book TV Lobotomy (Max Milo, 2022), which is based in part on his personal history. Exasperated by having to constantly justify the choice not to have television at home—and to prevent his children from having access to it—and not to be seen as a sociopath in the eyes of those around him, he has done a massive job to argue his point.

Executed Women of the 20th and 21st Centuries provides a look into the lives, crimes, and executions of women during the 20th and 21st centuries. Rather than dealing with these women as numbers and statistics, this book presents them as human beings. Each of these women had lives, histories, and families. The purpose is not to condone their actions, but to suggest that those we executed are, in fact, humans—rather than monsters, as they are often portrayed.

Over 350 entries provide an authoritative & comprehensive A-Z list of topics in psychology and law, including criminal behaviour and treatment, juvenile offenders, eyewitness memory, forensic assessment and diagnosis, and trial processes.