Legal Lynching: The Death Penalty and America's Future [Rev. ] by Jackson, Jesse L., Sr.; Jackson, Jesse L., Jr.; Shapiro, Bruce; Jr., Jesse L. Jackson - 2001

New York: The New Press. 2001. First Edition. Hardcover. Brand Newin Fine DJ; Acidfree F/Fine illus 1stEd gift qual; not written-in, underlined, clearance or discard. Usually mails within 12 hours. ; 0.80 x 9.70 x 6.34; 288 pages; From Publishers Weekly: In this collaborative work, the Jacksons, father (former presidential candidate & founder of the Rainbow Coalition) & son (a congressional representative) with Salon^com editor Shapiro, pursue a nationwide conversation on the issues surrounding the death penalty one that begins with the proposal of a moratorium & could lead to the eventual cessation of capital punishment. This book describes a bureaucratic nightmare involving defense lawyers asleep at trial, vengeance-hungry politicos & a problematic, imperfect justice system in which the handing out of death sentences is skewed, both racially & economically. An objective examination of this penal system would be beneficial to all, say the authors: since the Supreme Court allowed executions to resume in 1976, one in every eight prisoners on death row has been found innocent & released. There are undoubtedly cases, the authors argue, where the proof of innocence didn't see the light of day in time. Navigating the historical precedents of the death penalty & the reasons why federally mandated executions were restored following a 10-year moratorium imposed in 1967, the authors thoroughly detail legitimate questions regarding what they view as erroneous deterrence theories, scriptural misrepresentation & simple vengeance. "Today's executions are exercises in the engineering of death, the institutionalizing of death, the bureaucratizing of death, " they conclude. This will be a must-read for anti-death penalty advocates, who may find the arguments familiar but forcefully put. Their effective presentation might give pause even to those who believe executions are justified. Copyright 2001 Cahners. From Library Jour: Taking a more blood-&-guts approach, journalist Solotaroff goes behind the scenes & interviews the executioners who carry out the sentences. He concentrates on Parchman State Penitentiary in Mississippi & on two men, Donald Cabana, who quit his job as warden because he could not stomach the death penalty, & Donald Hocutt, who appears to relish his work yet suffers from a list of physical & psychological ailments. Solotaroff goes back to Parchman's early days as a plantation, to... Read more Book Description An urgent, eloquent call for the abolition of the death penalty in America, from the father & son who are leading the fight against state-sponsored execution. With public opinion polls showing opposition to the death penalty at its highest level in twenty years, this timely book by two of America's most important civil rights leaders & the Nation's criminal justice reporter makes a passionate & persuasive case against capital punishment. Combining a powerful moral argument with recent, overwhelming evidence of systematic legal error & widespread racial bias in death penalty cases, Legal Lynching directly attacks the basic claims of those-including our new president-who continue to insist on execution as a punitive solution for an increasing number of crimes. With the abolition of the death penalty in South Africa, the United States has become the last industrialized democracy to persist in state-sponsored execution. #Grounded in stories of those who were unjustly convicted & left to languish on death row, Legal Lynching is a moving, human book by America's leading death penalty abolitionists. It includes a fascinating history of capital punishment, stretching back to ancient Greece, as well as an inspiring account of the rise of the modern movement against state execution. This new, completely revised edition of Legal Lynching also incorporates the most up-to-date, comprehensive research on the death penalty, such as the recently released Columbia Law School analysis that, after examining every capital conviction & appeal between 1973 & 1995, found "serio... .