Choosing Mercy: A Mother of Murder Victims Pleads to End the Death Penalty [Paperback]

Antoinette Bosco (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Journalist Bosco (The Pummeled Heart) had her world overturned in 1993 when her son and daughter-in-law were shot to death while they slept. Their murder made no sense, even after the police arrested the 18-year-old son of the home's previous owner. Although the killer did not receive the death penalty (and despite his evident lack of remorse), Bosco, a devout Catholic who had always opposed the death penalty, was troubled by the resolutely pro-capital-punishment stance espoused by many violent-crime survivors and their advocates. In this spiritually charged meditation on violence and punishment, she addresses difficult issues, ranging from a deeply flawed corrections system to whether the worst offenders possess the capacity to atone and be redeemed. Bosco recounts how she became involved in the debate as a journalist and a mother for her own healing unsentimentally describing how her resolute prolife stand was sorely tested by her anger and grief and meeting others in her unfortunate position, including bestselling author Dominick Dunne, who forgave his daughter's murderer. Her advocacy increased when she went public as a writer and speaker willing to uphold the seditious view that "unnatural death is an evil, no matter whose hand stops the breath," and she includes here an appendix of books and organizations that argue against the death penalty. Bosco writes in a clear yet sometimes prolix fashion; much of her contemplation takes the form of wrestling with Christian biblical mandates, which may keep readers of other faiths at a distance. Even so, this is a brave, sustained and timely argument against capital punishment from one who has paid a heavy toll.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Sometimes the most eloquent opponents of the death penalty are those who have the most obvious personal reasons to demand this ultimate form of retribution: people who have lost loved ones in brutal, senseless crimes. In 1993 Bosco's son and his wife were shot and killed by an 18-year-old Montana neighbor. Bosco, a journalist, had long opposed the death penalty, partly because of family history, but the Montana murders made the issue even more central for her. Like some other family members of crime victims, Bosco found that forgiveness was an essential element of healing. She got involved in victim support groups and then prison visitation, becoming an activist, not simply for elimination of the death penalty, but also for radical reform of the prison system. Choosing Mercy is a highly personal story, describing Bosco's experiences and those of other parents and relatives Bosco has encountered in campaigning for a criminal justice system that would honor victims by blending justice with mercy. A valuable supplement to more academic studies of this issue. Mary Carroll
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 239 pages
• Publisher: Orbis Books (April 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 157075358X
• ISBN-13: 978-1570753589
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,541,309 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE SEAMLESS GARMENT CATHOLIC PRO-LIFE STANCE FULLY INFORMS THIS EXCELLENT STUDY, February 2, 2007

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C. Scanlon "least helpful reviewer" (among us humans) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Choosing Mercy: A Mother of Murder Victims Pleads to End the Death Penalty (Paperback)

Antoinette Bosco is a well known American Catholic writer and columnist. Very soon Ignatius will publish her study of the founder of the Benedictine Abbey of Regina Laudis in Connecticut, which still follows the Primitive Observance of the Rule. Amazon is now taking pre-orders, and by the time you read this perhaps it will be out. Meanwhile now and always is an excellent time to pray over this earlier work, so comprehensive and necessary for a full understanding of our womb to tomb pro-life dogma, and the comprehensive, courageous compassion and forgiveness to which Christ calls us every day.

As this book is indeed comprehensive and compassionate. Her own family was touched by murder, and yet Ms. Bosco took this as a chance to grow in our Faith and her own understanding and witness to our full pro-life belief. The other review here is so painful to read, as it obviously does not at all consider her intelligent and Faith-filled work of forgiveness. Ms. Bosco's book Choosing Mercy is a source of strength to all who suffer loss, to all who suffer. It brings meaning and solace to our suffering, and the only "closure" we truly can find, that of forgiveness in Christ.

Whenever we pray with our Lord the Lord's Prayer, the Our Father, we pray that Our Father might forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. We pray that God might use for us the same measurement of forgiveness that we give to those who have hurt us. We pray God might forgive us just as much as we forgive others. We pray for the same mercy we show others.

Ms. Bosco in this book gives us a prayerbook of forgiveness. In this book Ms. Bosco displays infinite and unmeasurable forgiveness and mercy and compassion and understanding, despite every human reason not to. Ms. Bosco thus deserves from Our Lord every full measure of forgiveness, although it is hard to imagine her offending in any way Our Lord and Creation, and it is impossible to imagine Ms. Bosco wrote this book with any measure of self-interest. She here teaches us by her model in this her book of forgiveness how to forgive, and to live.

She completes her work with an excellent listing of resource and support groups, and further recommended reading. She fully documents and footnotes her statements in this very thoughtful and prayerful and sincere work, which considers every aspect of this controversial question, which she finds resolved only in an ever more faithful and complete commitment to total Life. I find it impossible to adequately summarize here the impact and message of this book. We have no right to question her motives and reasoning. She lost two beloved children, a son and a daughter-in-law, to a senseless homicide, and she found the strength in our Faith to produce this sincere plea for an end to capital punishment, in union with our Church in Rome.

Intelligent, sincere, eloquent, comprehensive. This book is necessary for any student of our Church's orthodox moral theology, and for anyone with the power to bring to fruition our Church's comprehensive pro-life position. I find it impossible to quote from the work without disturbing or unbalancing its flow. Please, take and read, this book, the heart and mind of its Catholic author, in worthy and sacred memorial of her lost ones. In it may we find the strength and compassion to forgive, to love and to live as Christ shows us.

1 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Another Bleeding Heart Liberal, May 3, 2006

By 

D. Whitaker "Asking for real justice." (California, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Choosing Mercy: A Mother of Murder Victims Pleads to End the Death Penalty (Paperback)

Ask yourself just one question: If a convicted murderer serving a life sentence without the chance for parole brutually kills a prison guard, what penalty is given to this miscreant? A life sentence? Justice can only be done by taking this "person's" life in a short and swift time frame. Also have you noticed how many attorneys have a great deal of their income from defending these people and who pays, of course we do. I say shorten the appeal process and make it swift. Make it mandatory at every appeal hearing to show the death pictures if available of all the victims that were brutually killed. Plus limit the testimony based on the upbringing or childhood of the murderer. Who cares? One simple question in this regard, did he/she do the crime?