Customer Reviews

The Decline of the Death Penalty and the Discovery of Innocence

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

 

 

The book was very informative. The numbers and stats can bog you down a little when reading it, but overall the book has a clear cut thesis which is easily distinguishable through out the book.

This book carefully studies and shows the power of the idea of innocence in ending the death penalty.

There are many arguments against the death penalty, and it is troubling to many of us who have opposed it all of our lives that so many people in the USA continue to support it, even as the world has turned against it.

However, the idea that the system might execute an innocent person has a particular power to reach people in this country -- a power that is carefully researched in this book. As a new staffer for Witness to Innocence, working with people who served time on Death Row before their innocence was established, I have seen this power face to face. I have seen people have their minds changed as they listen to another human being who was sentenced to death, spent years or even decades on Death Row, and then were proven to be innocent.

Anyone reading this book will learn a lot not only about the death penalty, but about public opinion in the US.