Customer Reviews

Back from the Dead: One Woman's Search for the Men Who Walked off America's Death Row

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

As a 'Moderate Conservative', my interest in this book was initially based only on two factors 1) the author was a native San Antonian and 2) the statistical analysis approach appealed to the math major in me.

With that said, I can now say I have rarely read a book that caused me to examine my own deeply held beliefs, prejudices and opinions so honestly. Much like the authors mother, I have allways subscribed to the concept of 'an eye for an eye' and have believed in the good 'ol Texas version of justice.

Mrs. Cheever very carefully and very methodically tracked down, researched and interviewed men that our justice system said should now be dead. She very candidly discusses those that the justice system may have been right about (those that continued to kill and commit crimes). But she also takes us into the homes and lives of men who were in fact 'rehabilitated' and lived (and still live) productive, law-abiding and loving lives. However, she does not glamorize those men, nor does she excuse the crimes they committed. At all times, she keeps the reader aware of the innocent lives that were lost and the family's that still deal with the grief of those losses.

She raises the very valid question -can those sentenced to death as 'no hope for rehabilitation' actually be rehabilitated? While the justice system and arm-chair psychiatrists have strong opinions - Mrs. Cheever has used actual facts to unquestionably prove that 'Yes' it can be done and has been done.

Due to a brief stay of execution afforded these men - the world has the opportunity to see what became of their lives - lives that should not have continued based on the death sentence they received for their crimes.

After finishing the book, I cannot honestly say that I am yet opposed to the death penalty as a set-in-stone rule. However, I can say that I was immensely moved by both her passion, her words and her research. I can also say that I am glad that those men who were 'rehabilitated' were able to live their lives giving back to the communities, schools and church's that believed in them.

The American Public has been given a great book to explore complex and painful ideas - I only hope that we take the opportunity to learn what lessons lie in it.

Lawyer and journalist Joan Cheever has written a remarkable account of the "class of 72," the Death Row prisoners whose death sentences were invalidated by the U.S. Supreme Court in Furman v. Georgia.

Ms. Cheever sets out to answer some compelling questions. Where are these prisoners today? Of the 587 men and 2 women in the class of '72, how many are out of prison? How many killed again? Could any of the group be rehabilitated? What do they teach us about the death penalty?

Joan Cheever sets out on a detective-like journey, and by the time this saga reaches its conclusion, she has taken the reader through much of the death penalty experience. This is a truly human story, and it is important to remember the fact that it is human beings who sit on our Death Rows, even if we frequently transform them into "monsters." In short, Back From The Dead is a story for anybody interested in the death penalty, no matter whether one is for it or against it.

Most readers will find this book to be a true "page turner." Consider the opening paragraph from chapter one:

"It was 85 degrees that night in Huntsville, Texas. I sat alone in a booth at the McDonald's, off IH-45, drinking coffee and picking at a plate of greasy French fries, staring at the clock on the wall. The clock ticked too slowly for me, but too quickly for Walter Williams, my 32-year-old client, who sat alone just a mile away, in his cell on Death Row. We were both waiting for midnight."

What a great opener! Crisp and compelling. And what follows sustains the drama and intrigue. Ms. Cheever has done first-rate research in tracking down the class of '72, and the story that unfolds in Back From The Dead is brilliantly written and her analysis is most solid. I highly recommend this book.

An insider's riveting walk into the minds of Death Row inmates. Ms. Cheever gives a thought-provoking, yet compassionate story of The Class of '72, inmates whose destiny changed with the Supreme Court decision. Flecked with humor and sincerity, Ms. Cheever enlightens her readers with such a natural stance in her writing that her reader feels she is accompanying her on her mission. A page turner, for sure. Ms. Cheever has definitely hit the mark with Back From the Dead and makes one think hard about capital punishment. A terrific read!

Tracking down 589 people is no small undertaking. Ms. Cheever not only does justice to any overwhelming task, but delves into the depths of the Class of '72, who received a second chance at life after having been sentenced to death. While on her journey to find what became of the "lottery winners" winners of Furman v. Georgia, Ms. Cheever touched their souls while exposing her own. In the end the author learns the meaning of forgiveness and becomes a "healer" in justice system wrought with injustice.
The reader learns where and who some of the reprieved convicts are today with the added insight of Ms. Cheever's underpinings through snipets of her colorful Texas family. Just as the reader comes up for air, having met a former death row inmate, having heard the facts of his crime and punishment, the author teases the reader with a preview the next unsavory character. Putting down the book at this point is not an option. In the end there is much to ponder. Kudos to Ms. Cheever whose Notes are as good a read as the book.

Joan M. Cheever has accomplished the rare task of delivering a book that is both entertaining and riveting, and yet has a message and something to teach us. With an expert blend of memoir and serious sociological study (about what happened when Death Row inmates were released from prison), Ms. Cheever has woven a story of redemption and hope with an apologia for abolishing the Death Penalty in this country. Her words deserve wide readership. I can only hope that many will be as moved and inspired as I have been.

What a great read. I couldn't put it down and stayed up way too late turning page after page. The author knows how to keep your attention. The subject matter is timely and the story is fascinating. I even read the footnotes (which I never do). I plan to read it again.

I found the book interesting, but with some repetition throughout. It didn't fulfill my deeper interest in the psychological side of the subjects in the book. The significant point is to fully evaluate your personal beliefs about capital punishment - has absolute guilt been determined? ...and prisoner rehabilitation...can people change? Overall, an interesting book, but not quite enough substance for me.

Ms. Cheever is brutally honest about her fears, her encounters with defendants who served on death row. Unlike most lawyers, she speaks from her heart, with no ego interfering. As a practicing attorney in Texas, I relished every single word of this book.

Whatever else this book is, it is not a case for letting murderers go free. Joan Cheever is very clear that many of the crimes this "Class of '72" were convicted of were completely deserving of punishment.

But in examining those who escaped their date with the executioner, she also convincingly makes the case that the death penalty is arbitrary, both in how it is applied and who it applies to. Two of the freed individuals really were innocent. Not "but I only drove the car" or "I was framed by my partner who really pulled the trigger" faux-innocent but men who were not present, not involved, and yet through incompetent court-appointed lawyers and overzealousness to put someone, anyone, behind bars, were sentenced to death (the real killer was caught some time later after a series of similar crimes for which these innocent men had been imprisoned.)

In contrast, there were one or two other individuals who were psychopaths. No one was "freed" by the abolition of the death penalty; their sentences were commuted to life in prison. Several were paroled and killed again. One questions a system that paroles serial killers and convicts innocent people. Adding in the death penalty only muddies the waters.

There is a convincing case that the energy spent on the death penalty would be better spent on sorting out those who are capable of remorse and giving them the tools to eventually re-integrate into society (as the majority of the 589 who escaped the death penalty in 1972 have tried to do) from those who exhibit personality disorders that cannot be mitigated through the stick of incarceration combined with the carrot of educational/vocational opportunities and psychological counseling.

And Ms Cheever has not forgotten the victims. This book isn't an excuse, but an examination of a peculiar institution we cling to called the death penalty, and what happens when we focus on options other than state-sanctioned killing.


Four stars is a compromise. Unfortunately, I found her habit of focusing on herself instead of her subjects really distracting (and a little odd for someone who places such emphasis on her journalistic background.) It has excellent footnotes, biography, index, and (thank you!) and epilogue that catches the reader up after the five years she spent researching and interviewing.

For most people, the death penalty is a matter of the heart, and whether there are numbers to prove or disprove the belief is beside the point. Thankfully, author Joan Cheever is not most people, and in "Back from the Dead" she has done a masterful job of laying out the facts (documented with a journalist's zeal) and marrying them with a vividly told story of a compelling personal journey. In doing so, she has not only made an important contribution to the national debate on the death penalty, but she has also given us a good read.