Machinery of Death: The Reality of America's Death Penalty Regime

Front Cover
David Dow, Mark Dow
Psychology Press, 2002 - Political Science - 304 pages
Thurgood Marshall said that the more people learned about the death penalty, the more they'd be against it. It's racist, unfair to poor people and the mentally retarded, and far too often ends horribly in the state sanctioned murder of innocents. And no one, no matter how much they're paid, likes to be involved with death itself. In Machinery of Death, death penalty lawyer David R. Dow and writer Mark Dow bring together diverse views from lawyers, wardens, victims' families, executioners and inmates to show how America's death penalty system actually works, and what it does to those who come in contact with it. Arguing that the more we know about the system the more we'll oppose it, the book offers harrowing story after story of racist juries and unjust rulings, of backward judges and public defenders, and of families facing the ultimate decision. Together, these intimate and shocking writings show that in practice, the death penalty is impossible to administer in a fair, workable manner. This is the first death penalty book to look beyond innocence and morality, arguing against executing even the guilty people. Machinery of Death is a crucial link in the fiery public debate over the meaning and usefulness of this deeply flawed system.
 

Contents

The Problem of Innocence
1
How the Death Penalty Really Works
11
The Execution of Ivon Ray Stanley
37
Race and the Death Penalty
45
The Judge as Lynch Mob
79
Samuel B Johnson
91
Jousting with the Juggernaut
107
CONTENTS
145
Interview with Warden
175
Is the Death Penalty Good for Women?
195
The Legacy of Mr Smile
225
In Memory of Andrew Lee Jones
241
Representing Robert Sawyer
249
Killing the Death Penalty with Kindness
269
Speaking Out against the Execution of Timothy McVeigh
275
Reflections on Justice Survival and Healing
283

Chance and the Exoneration of Anthony Porter
157
Interview with a TieDown Officer
169

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