Death and Justice: An Expose of Oklahoma's Death Row Machine [Hardcover]

Mark Fuhrman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2, 2003

"Controversy rages about capital punishment as innocent men and women are being released from death rows all over the country. Into the debate steps Mark Fuhrman, America's most famous detective, and no stranger to controversy himself.

Are innocent people being executed? Are death penalty cases being investigated and tried as if someone's life depended on it? Is capital punishment justice or revenge?

Fuhrman seeks to answer these questions by investigating the death penalty in Oklahoma, a place where a "hang 'em high" attitude of cowboy justice resulted in twenty-one executions in 2001, more than in any other state in the nation. The majority of these death penalty cases came from one jurisdiction, Oklahoma County, where legendary district attorney Bob Macy bragged about sending more people to death row than any other prosecutor, and police chemist Joyce Gilchrist was eventually fired for mismanaging the crime lab. These two figures loom large in Fuhrman's investigation.

Examining police records, trial transcripts, and appellate decisions, and conducting hundreds of interviews, Fuhrman focuses his considerable investigative skills on more than a dozen of the most controversial Oklahoma death penalty cases, including two in which innocent men nearly lost their lives.

When he began "Death and Justice, Mark Fuhrman was a firm believer in the death penalty. What he saw in Oklahoma changed his mind. It may change yours.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Former LAPD detective Fuhrman (Murder in Brentwood and Murder in Spokane) may not be an elegant stylist, but his latest book is a serious and alarming investigation of legal misconduct on a massive scale. In 2001, Oklahoma executed 21 death row inmates-more than any other state in the country-and 13 had been convicted by the same Oklahoma County district attorney, Bob Macy. Fuhrman sets the stage: A barrel-chested cowboy whose good-ol'-boy brand of frontier politics and hard-line stance on the death penalty earned him a handful of enemies but many more powerful friends, Macy aggressively pushed for the death penalty in cases that other prosecutors would likely never have brought to trial. And his political influence and tearfully delivered closing arguments led to victory more often than not. Supporting Macy in his self-righteous campaign against crime was Joyce Gilchrist, director of the Oklahoma City Police Department crime lab. Often scolded for indiscretions but never strongly questioned, Gilchrist, Fuhrman explains, flagrantly mismanaged the crime lab for nearly two decades and routinely gave false and misleading testimony under oath (testimony that led to several death penalty convictions). When the cumulative effects of Gilchrist's incompetence and a federal investigation finally threatened to erupt into a national scandal, potentially damaging evidence against her was found to be either conveniently missing or prematurely destroyed. Fuhrman stops short of calling Oklahoma's problems a conspiracy, but he does show that they are endemic not only to Oklahoma but also to our entire criminal justice system. While his discussions of the ethical complexities of executions are unsophisticated, Fuhrman's book makes for an engrossing read.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Fuhrman thought he'd be a sympathetic observer when he decided to focus on conservative Oklahoma County while researching the death penalty. Little did he know that his own research would turn his views upside down. After the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, "frontier justice," as Fuhrman calls it, became the norm in Oklahoma. Overzealous law-enforcement officials would find a suspect and retrofit the evidence. Heading up this practice was the extremely popular D.A., Bob Macy, and his most trusted forensic scientist, Joyce Gilchrist. With the precision of a first-rate detective--which, O.J. notwithstanding, Fuhrman truly is--he breaks down several death-penalty cases that relied on rather questionable investigative techniques and considerably suspect scientific reasoning. When faced with the possibility that innocent people might have been executed at the hands of an overly ambitious prosecutorial machine, Fuhrman reconsiders his position on the matter: "Macy's career showed me the futility of vengeance. Evil cannot be met with evil, no matter how it is justified. The whole point of law enforcement is to serve justice, not your own ego, ambition, or pathology." With every offering, Fuhrman, once reviled, is showing himself to be a courageous man who dares to take on his own industry. Dominick Dunne, look out. Mary Frances Wilkens
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1 edition (September 2, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060009179
• ISBN-13: 978-0060009175
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #845,563 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mark Fuhrman is a crime expert for FOX News and a New York Times bestselling author. Before FOX, Fuhrman was an on-air consultant for ABC, CBS, and Court TV.

Fuhrman served as a Los Angeles Police Department detective for 20 years, rising to fame as a key investigator and witness in the notorious O.J. Simpson murder trial. He lives in Idaho.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely thought provoking, October 12, 2003

By 

L.J. Hueth (Cucamonga, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Death and Justice: An Expose of Oklahoma's Death Row Machine (Hardcover)

I too have been a dyed in the wool "death penalty advocate". While the read seemed like an investigative report at times (given the authors background and the books subject matter this isn't all bad) it opened the door to a world most of us civilians rarely if ever see. How many of us hold doctors, police, clergy and other professions to a standard (absolute perfection) that doesn't exist in our own professions or personal lives. Mr. Furhman has been able to shed light on the humanity (and all its fragilness) that exists in the life and death decisions made in our courts. Mind opening and thought provoking.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What constitutes guilty?, October 16, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Death and Justice: An Expose of Oklahoma's Death Row Machine (Hardcover)

The issue discussed is not merely whether or not these people were guilty; the issue is the mismanagement of the crime lab in Oklahoma County. The DA appeared to know that Ms. Gilchrist was distorting facts and manipulating evidence, yet he was so intent on gaining a conviction, he participated in this travesty called the Oklahoma county judicial system. He should have been disbarred at the very least, and charged with criminal conspiracy. As a person who lives in this state but does not personally believe in the death penalty, I tried to read this with an open mind. Anti-death penalty advocates are not saying these criminals should be allowed to roam free in our society. They should absolutely be imprisoned for the remainder of their lives, so they can hurt no one else. DNA evidence lessens the chance of the "wrong" person being convicted, as long as it is used correctly. Surely even the strongest supporter of the death penalty has no desire to see innocent people put to death.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Interesting Book, May 11, 2004

By 

Butterscotch (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Death and Justice: An Expose of Oklahoma's Death Row Machine (Hardcover)

I enjoyed this book and the in-depth look at the criminal justice system in Oklahoma County. The writing - as in Fuhrman's other books - was top notch. The book attempts to show us - through a series of criminal cases - how the death penalty in Oklahoma County may be overused, particularly by one Bob Macy (the county DA). At times I did feel like this was mostly an expose of Bob Macy and his crime lab assistant, Joyce Gilchrist. While I did come away with a feeling of dislike for both the work of Macy and Gilchrist I'm still not convinced that the death penalty is wrong. Fuhrman looked at isolated cases in just one county, and in a rather unpopulous state at that. The book was good, but I missed the "detectiveness" that was in all of Fuhrman's other books. I felt in this book that he was just relaying a series of events that I could read about anywhere, whereas in his other books he was an active searcher/researcher on the trail of something much more interesting and less mainstream. I also expected more interplay between him and the local townspeople, but we really aren't told how he went about his research, and there isn't much dialogue between him and anyone else. I will look forward to his next book but hope it is something more `detective-like' and not something written on topic that anyone could have done.