Customer Reviews

Death At Midnight: The Confession of an Executioner

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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?

Thank goodness for Donald Cabana, who is one former death row warden not afraid to speak the truth. As a prison minister who has personally met over 50 death row inmates, I join Cabana in his affirmation of the humanity of those imprisoned...and in his condemnation of the death penalty. Cabana has witnessed the reality of the system in action, and knows that there is a better way to fight crime.

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.

As a strong supporter of capital punishment, reading this book made me rethink the issue of executions. I think it is necessary to execute people who commit heinous crimes. They have taken a life, therefore must their life be taken. But I think that if you are personally involved in executions, like Mr. Cabana, it is possible that you change your mind and attitude towards executions and the death penalty itself. You can see in this book that Don Caban changed his mind about the death penalty: A long time he was a supporter of it and thought it was the correct punishment to a heinous crime, but after carrying out excutions himself, especially after Connie Ray Evanses, he was against it. I am 20 years old and I found this book so interesting I read it within a week! I recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about executions and who wants to get an insider's view of capital punishment.

Although this book has been marketed with a focus on the capital punishment issue, it basically is a biographical account of the author's work in corrections, spanning a 25 year career and culminating in the 1987 execution of Connie Ray Evans. The first and last chapters are the most passionate, detailing the events immediately leading up to Evans' execution and the completion of it. The middle chapters cover the history of Cabana's criminal justice work, beginning in Massachusetts, and moving through Mississippi, Florida, and Missouri.
Good: The sheer brutality of an execution is vividly displayed here, as is the fierce emotional toll it takes on the criminal justice professional who performs it. Cabana described Evans' execution as a "personal hell," and this book takes you through it step by step. Particularly hard-hitting are the accounts of his visit with Evans' mother and the grisly descriptions of the killing itself.
Bad: The chapters in the middle dealing with Cabana's career advancement and work in criminal justice are probably of moderate to little interest to folks who aren't directly involved in that line of work (unlike myself).
Opinion: It's very easy to talk about the morality issues of capital punishment when one is distanced from the act itself. I've heard people say things like, "The executioner is acting as an instrument of the state; it's not the same thing as murder." Well, Cabana's experience says something different. He writes, "In spite of telling myself many times that I was just 'doing my job,' as [Edward] Johnson's date with death loomed closer I increasingly felt the crush of events. The planning and meticulous attention to the detail paid off, however, and Edward Johnson's execution came off flawlessly. There was just one problem. Afterward, I felt dirty. I remember standing in the shower at three o'clock in the morning, scrubbing as hard as I could. No matter what I tried, nothing seemed to put my mind at ease. The rest of the world could afford to be matter-of-fact, I thought; they had not strapped a man in a chair and killed him. I would remember every detail about Edward Earl Johnson - every wrinkle, every blemish - forever."

The title of this book is a little misleading. I would not call it the confession, but rather biography of Donald Cabana who worked in the prison system for a number of years and, as warden, oversaw the execution of two people.

The book is very well written, easy to understand and is, in my opinion, quite humble. Donald Cabana had a remarkable and varied career. His feelings about capital punishment, especially after personally overseeing executions, are interesting to read about. There are not too many books from this unique point of view.

If you're looking for detail on the death penalty process or execution technology then there are better books to read. If you are looking for an interesting biography with some insights into relationships between prison staff and inmates, then this is the perfect book.

I read this book for a class assignment thinking it would be another druge. When i finished reading it however i had tears in my eyes because I realized how much real life can be like a movie. Cabana did an excellent job explaining how much the prison systems were messed up. He starts out not being able to hold in his excitment at being accepted to work in a prison, and by the end of the book, even though he had the job he always wanted, can't wait to get away from it all. He also brings out that everyone is human, it doesn't matter if you're an inmate or the inmate's warden, you are still able to find your real friends, and they aren't always where you'd expect them to be! They only fault i could find in this book is that although Cabana tries very hard to convince the reader that the death penalty is wrong, he doesn't give enough evidence why it shouldn't be alright for anyone besides himself to not mind the death penalty. While i oppose it, i probably wouldn't have been convinced from this book alone. Overall though if you want to read a good book, Death at Midnight is extrordinary!

This book chronicles a prison warden's career through the prison system. His recollection of specific incidents (e.g., a hostage situation) is vivid and heart-wrenching. Cabana's moral struggle with carrying out an execution is not presented philosophically, but instead relates what it's actually like to give the order to have someone put to death in the gas chamber. Whether you agree with Cabana's (arguably compassionate) viewpoints on the correctional system or not, this book is a page-turner because of his interesting life events. For those who are looking for a death penalty discussion, this book is a good accompaniment to "Dead Man Walking."

I purchased this book after reading the rave reviews posted on Amazon's Website, however, after reading it I was somewhat disappointed. For one, I thought that the title would better serve a potential reader if it focused instead of Donald Cabana's role as a warden, or as a criminal justice professional, rather than as an executioner since the content tracks Cabana's years moving up through the ranks of several states' prison systems. Through his career path, Cabana relates sometimes bone-chilling anecdotes about the everyday lives of inmates; his descriptions are outstandingly written. However, Cabana sometimes wanders from one anecdote to another in an almost "free-associative" style, which makes the text somewhat hard to follow.

The focus on his life as an executioner, although clearly having provided the impetus to write these memoirs in the first place, is almost understated. I had hoped for more on the development of his friendship with one of the condemned prisoners so that I could better feel Cabana's dread as the execution date neared. While I can imagine the author's emotions regarding his role in the prisoners' deaths, I felt that Cabana fell short of describing his innermost feelings.

Being a former student of Dr. Cabana, his true emotions and life experiences are conveyed perfectly in this book. While it does condemn the death penalty, you actually get a feel of what it is like to actually put another person to death. Something that is awe striking. Whether you support or oppose capital punishment, this book is an inviting look into real executions and the emotions that accompany them. Congrats Dr. C on a great read . . . wish I hadn't graduated so I could take some more classes under you.