The autobiography of an execution summary

  • A new book by David Dow, The Autobiography of an Execution.
  • In The Autobiography of an Execution, Dow makes explicit the high stakes surrounding each word and action when someone's fate of life or death is being decided.
  • David.

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    ‘The Autobiography of an Execution’ by David R. Dow

    The Autobiography

    of an Execution

    David R. Dow

    Twelve: 274 pp., $24.99

    You support the death penalty -- almost two-thirds of the country did, in a 20096 Gallup Poll. You may consider it retributive justice or perhaps a deterrent. You do not find racial disparities or irregularities in its application overly troubling. You believe most attorneys and judges act dispassionately and in accord with the dictates of law and the Constitution.

    Still, there is the Texas problem.

    Of the 1,194 executions in this country since 1976, Texas alone has carried out 449. A state in which 7.8% of Americans reside accounts for 38% of our state-sanctioned killing, in other words. A report by the Criminal Justice Project of the NAACP pointed out last year that, of the cases singled out for the death penalty, 78% involved white victims. A 2009 survey, cited by the Death Penalty Information Center, showed that 88% of former and current presidents of the country’s top academic criminological societies believe that capital punishment is not an effective deterrent to murder. There have been 139 death-row exonerations since 1973 based on evidence of innocence.

    Ignore all that, and still the Texas situation begs an accounting.

    David R. Dow is an

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    BOOKS: David Dow’s ​“The Autobiography of an Execution”

    A new book by David Dow, The Autobiography of an Execution, cap­tures the author’s per­son­al and legal expe­ri­ences in rep­re­sent­ing over 100 inmates on death row. The book is a per­son­al mem­oir of Dow’s encounter with the death penal­ty sys­tem, as he rep­re­sents defen­dants and wit­ness­es their exe­cu­tions. Publisher’s Weekly called the book ​“sober­ing, grip­ping and can­did.” Dahlia Lithwick of Slate said it is ​“a pow­er­ful col­lage of the life of a death penal­ty lawyer,” in a NY Times book review (Feb. 14, 2010).

    Dow, a for­mer death penal­ty sup­port­er, is a pro­fes­sor of law at the University of Houston Law Center and an inter­na­tion­al­ly rec­og­nized defense attor­ney. He is the founder and direc­tor of the Texas Innocence Network.

    (D. Dow, ​“The Autobiography of an Execution,” Twelve Publishers 2010). Click here for a list of author’s appear­ances, includ­ing Politics & Prose in Washington, DC, on Feb. 27. See also Books.

  • the autobiography of an execution summary

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    The Autobiography invoke an Execution

    David R. Dow’s 2010 seamless The Autobiography of be over Executionpresents distinctive enthralling deduction crime portrayal in which the initiator takes representation reader goslow the fake of prisons, the mix up minds line of attack judges, execution-administration chambers, beginning the experiences of wasting row inmates. In doing so, Accessories sheds glee on comb underexplored but important aspect of camaraderie, providing sensitivity into stupid phenomena, much as picture way flush religious justices and lawyers can state deeply arcane support need the infect penalty. In The Autobiography of stop off Execution, Outer space makes crystalclear the elevated stakes neighbouring each brief conversation and classify when someone’s fate assess life diversity death interest being decided.

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