14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Stunning Insider's View of the Death Penalty, March 30, 2000
Wow! This is an amazing book. I opened up the package from Amazon, started reading a few pages just to get an idea of the author's writing skills, and didn't stop reading until I was finished.
I would describe myself as painfully pro-death penalty. I'm struggling badly with this issue. That's why I bought this book. I figured that a prison warden who handled executions would provide a unique perspective.
He certainly did!
Now, I can't say that this book changed my mind. It did move me somewhat towards being against the death penalty. I think we're at least over using it. I'm so angry at some people (Tim McVeigh) that I think a certain few deserve this ultimate penalty. I'm starting to think that having the death penalty available for those few people who may deserve it just creates unsolvable and unacceptable problems.
This book really has me thinking. What more can you ask?
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not What I Expected, March 23, 2008
This review is from: Death At Midnight: The Confession of an Executioner (Paperback)
Donald Cabana's book, Death at Midnight: The Confession of an Executioner is not aptly named. Although the title implies that the book is about an executioner, Cabana actually spends most of the book recounting petty squabbles with various administrators and co-workers during his years before becoming warden of Parchman prison in Mississippi. What little time Cabana spends critiquing the death penalty is ultimately unpersuasive, because Cabana relies entirely on anecdotes and appeals to his readers' sympathy. Capital punishment is too complex a problem to be argued on such pedestrian grounds.
Cabana's anecdotal anti-death penalty argument focuses primarily on what Cabana sees as the unfairness of executing Connie Ray Evans, a death-row inmate that struck up a friendship with Cabana while awaiting execution. Cabana never fully explains the circumstances surrounding Evans's conviction and sentence, except to say that Evans had murdered a store clerk during a robbery. I was interested in learning more about the crime that Evans was convicted of, so I was forced to do some research of my own. After learning more about Evans's crime, Cabana's repeated efforts to elicit sympathy for Evans failed. The following is a description of the events that led to Evans's conviction and eventual execution, which I found by reading court decisions referencing Evans's various appeals.
Connie Ray Evans and an accomplice, Alfonso Artis, concocted a plan to rob an R.J.'s Food Center on April 7, 1981. They specifically discussed the fact that it might be necessary to use a gun in the robbery. The next morning, Artis picked Evans up and the two walked to the store. They waited near the store for about half an hour, until they noticed that there were no customers inside. While Evans stood outside on look-out duty, Artis entered the store with a pistol and ordered the store clerk, Arun Pawha to get on his knees. Evans then entered the store and took control of the gun while Artis attempted to open a cash register. The two men ordered Pawha to help them in opening the register, and once they had robbed it, Evans ordered Pawha to get back on his knees. The two then searched Pawha's pockets and stole his wallet. As they turned to leave, Evans shot Pawha in the back of the head, killing him. When Artis asked why, Evans responded, "Because I'm cold-blooded." The two had managed to steal $140, which they spent that night on clothes, a movie, and a few beers. Evidence led police to Artis the next day, and Evans fled to the streets, where he evaded police for 17 days before turning himself in at the insistence of his sister. When asked by police why he had shot Pawha, Evans said "the man knew me, and I did not want him to identify me."
Cabana's appeals for sympathy fail, because the execution of Evans was just. It is clear that Evans planned the murder beforehand. The fact that Evans and Artis brought a gun and robbed a store within walking distance of Evans's home indicates that it was Evans's plan to kill the clerk from the very beginning. This is especially evident, given the fact that Evans watched the store for a half hour while waiting for customers to leave the scene. Evans certainly would have seen the clerk and known that the clerk could identify him, yet he chose to rob the store anyway. Since he knew the clerk could identify him, it seems clear that the murder of Pawha was pre-planned. Additionally, there is something inherently obscene about a murder that is committed for such a small sum of money. Human life is worth more than $140 - it is worth more than some clothes, a movie ticket, and a beer.
Cabana argues that Evans's capital sentence is unfair in light of the fact that Evans's accomplice received a sentence of 25 years but had already been paroled by the time Evans's execution. This argument is unpersuasive as well. Evans's accomplice was not the one who fired the fatal shot, and it is unclear whether the accomplice had any idea that Evans planned on murdering the clerk once the robbery was complete. Cabana implies that Evans's accomplice got a light sentence by agreeing to cooperate with the prosecutor in Evans's trial. Perhaps this is true, but the fact remains that it was Evans, not Artis, who ordered a man to his knees and then shot him in the back.
Cabana argues that the idea of executing another human being is made easier by the fact that very few people actually have to witness or participate in such an event. Yet, Cabana is guilty of the same problem he accuses the general public of. He rails against those executions he personally participated in, yet speaks favorably about the execution of child killer Jimmy Lee Gray. Cabana is also inconsistent when he argues that proximity to the death penalty makes one less inclined to support it. He refers to himself as an "executioner," yet he speaks favorably about the prospect of executing those who, in Cabana's mind, truly deserve it. Cabana argues that the men on death row are not necessarily the ones who deserve a death sentence, and that he would execute some of the truly horrible inmates without any qualms. If this is true, then it is inconsistent with Cabana's position that one who is involved in executing inmates is per se opposed to capital punishment. Cabana seems to say that the inmates who are on death row don't deserve to be there, yet he leaves room for the possibility that there are other inmates who do deserve to be there.
Cabana's credibility is also negatively impacted by his recitation of several "facts" concerning the death penalty. Among this laundry list of grievances against the death penalty are the following allegations: (1) The United States is one of less than 6 six countries that authorizes the death penalty for juveniles and has executed more juveniles since 1990 than any other country; (2) There have been more than 24 documented cases of executions of innocent people.
Number one is wrong on two grounds. First, the U.S. abolished the death penalty for juveniles in Roper v. Simmons. Second, the U.S. has not executed more juveniles than any other country since 1990. That title belongs to Iran, which had executed 22 juveniles from 1990 until the Roper decision. The statistics that Cabana cites also don't take into account the numberless unofficial executions and renditions that occur regularly throughout the world.
Number two is likely wrong as well. Cabana's conclusory statement that 24 innocent men have been put to death is shocking. So shocking, in fact, that I decided (once again) to do research of my own. I cannot find a single source that corroborates that figure, and the recent controversy surrounding the execution of Roger Keith Coleman belies the statement that there are, somewhere, 24 documented cases of innocent men being executed. As a reminder, Roger Keith Coleman was the man who was convicted of raping and murdering his sister-in-law. He maintained his innocence until the very end. His last words before being executed in 1992 were: "An innocent man is going to be murdered tonight. When my innocence is proven, I hope America will realize the injustice of the death penalty as all civilized countries have." Fourteen years later, death penalty abolitionists pressured the governor of Virginia to re-test the DNA samples obtained at the crime scene using modern techniques. Time magazine placed a photo of Coleman on its cover, the governor received thousands of phone calls about Coleman, books were written arguing that Coleman was the first documented case of an innocent man being put to death...and in the end, when the DNA results came back, everyone who supported Coleman was forced to eat crow when the DNA proved that Coleman had lied up until the very end. The DNA test concluded that he was a liar, murderer and rapist.
Cabana's book is disappointing for a variety of reasons. While the title implies that it is a book about the death penalty, very little space is actually spent talking about capital punishment. The vast majority of the book is instead spent recounting Cabana's rise from prison guard to warden of the largest prison in Mississippi. And while this is certainly a great accomplishment, Cabana's infatuation with personalities and the minutiae of administrative bodies renders even this story bland and uninteresting. Cabana's infatuation with personality over substance translates into nothing more than a series of anecdotes about Cabana's various interactions with petty bureaucrats and administrators. What little time Cabana spends discussing the death penalty is so facially lacking in substance that even this is unpersuasive and unimaginative. Overall, I cannot recommend this book to anyone, be they a death penalty supporter or detractor.
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