Customer Reviews

The Last Face You'll Ever See: The Culture of Death Row

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Solotaroff's original idea for this book was a good idea in theory. The book is focused on stories from Mississippi's death row, but the stories don't go anywhere. It was about as interesting as reading the phone.

The book follows the life of a particular executioner and those who work around him. The one redeeming quality of the book is detail given to the infamous execution of James Lee Gray. A few humorous points in the book were also worth reading such as the practical jokes on inmates and testing the gas chamber out on a turtle. These exceptions, the book is dull and depressing. The author spends an exceptionally long time discussing details which which are unncessary. Musing about the commute to work, what was for dinner, and other miscellaneous ramblings take away from the book. The writing also seems to focus more on the structure of the gas chamber than how it was used. While the book does give insight as to the deteriorated condition the lives of executioners often go into, the structure of the book leaves much to be desired. Solotaroff should have broadened his focus to include other executioners with varying and interesting stories.

I would discourage people from buying this book. This view of a life working on death row is very limited and certainly would have been a better read with storyline that focuses less on one man's experience in Mississippi.

Very interesting book about the modern death penalty in America - mostly discussing its history from the 1976 lift of the Supreme Court ban on executions through the 80's when the criminally dull lethal injection method gradually replaced the far more morbidly interesting gas chamber and electric chair. It goes into graphic detail on some of the most infamous bungled gas and electricity executions of the era and gives insight into why some of the men who carried out the executions later became staunch anti-death penalty activists. The book gets a bit dull about half-way through when it starts to focus on the life story of an unpleasant man named Donald Hocutt who was the Mississippi executioner for several years. (That's his ugly mug on the cover.) Honestly, I could not possibly care less about the guy or his practical joking daredevil macho past. However, when the book isn't indulging in Hocutt's meager accomplishments, it's an excellent morbid read.

Having seen a tv programme about the American capital punishment system during which The author of this book was being interviewed, I thought I'd like to read his work. This book is very interesting and shocking in some ways. very good information, makes you stop and think from the executioners point of view, and also how deserving some prisoners are to be executed, while others perhaps not. Good informative reading, though not for the faint hearted.