With public opinion polls showing opposition to the death penalty at its highest level in twenty years, this timely book by two of America's most important civil rights leaders and the Nation's criminal justice reporter makes a passionate and persuasive case against capital punishment. Combining a powerful moral argument with recent, overwhelming evidence of systematic legal error and widespread racial bias in death penalty cases, Legal Lynching directly attacks the basic claims of those—including our new president—who continue to insist on execution as a punitive solution for an increasing number of crimes. With the abolition of the death penalty in South Africa, the United States has become the last industrialized democracy to persist in state-sponsored execution.
Grounded in stories of those who were unjustly convicted and left to languish on death row, Legal Lynching is a moving, human book by America's leading death penalty abolitionists. It includes a fascinating history of capital punishment, stretching back to ancient Greece, as well as an inspiring account of the rise of the modern movement against state execution. This new, completely revised edition of Legal Lynching also incorporates the most up-to-date, comprehensive research on the death penalty, such as the recently released Columbia Law School analysis that, after examining every capital conviction and appeal between 1973 and 1995, found "serious, reversible legal error in nearly 7 of every 10 capital sentences."
Originally published in 1995 and out of print for several years, Legal Lynching was the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. and Jesse L. Jackson, Jr.'s first book. It has been completely revised and updated for this edition. 12 black-and-white photographs.
