Live from Death Row [Hardcover]

Mumia Abu-Jamal (Author), John Edgar Wideman (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1995

Here for the first time are the prison writings of Abu-Jamal--including the censored commentaries from NPR--an unflinching account of the brutalities, humiliations and actrocities of prison life. Articulate and compelling, the work is certain to fuel the controversy surrounding capital punishment and freedom of speech.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A former Philadelphia radio reporter, on death row since his 1982 conviction for the murder of a Philadelphia police officer?in a flawed case he's trying to reopen?Abu-Jamal gained attention last year when National Public Radio rescinded its plan to broadcast his commentaries. This collection of brief writings, including some intended for NPR, presents a bracing challenge to complacent views about crime, race and incarceration?and surely deserved airing. "Encased within a psychic cocoon of negativity, the bad get worse and feed on evil's offal," he writes, noting the irony of the term "corrections." In the postindustrial age, he comments, America is the world's prison leader, and crack's devastation of black America reminds him of the impact of alcohol on Native Americans. Abu-Jamal is a radical, and while his view of the government's attacks on the Branch Davidians and on the Philadelphia radical group MOVE is appropriately skeptical, his uncritical support for Black Panther Huey Newton and MOVE may dismay even those sympathetic to his general critique.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

After a bizarre shooting of a policeman and an equally bizarre trial, Abu-Jamal was convicted of murder and sentenced to Pennsylvania's death row. Twelve years later, he is still there, although new evidence has been found to support his innocence. This volume is a collection of his writings, which, for the most part, document the atrocities of prison life. The reader may sympathize with Abu-Jamal's plight and even question his guilt in the shooting but will probably find this book fragmented and sketchy. Instead of a continuous narrative, Abu-Jamal offers brief notes drawn together under one theme. Good prose is drowned by ravings and accusations. One can see why Abu-Jamal's commentaries on National Public Radio were abruptly canceled. The book will probably not be of value to public or academic libraries. It might be of use in correctional facility libraries where readers are interested in the case.?Frances Sandiford, Green Haven Correctional Facility Lib., Stormville, N.Y.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Perseus Books; 1St Edition edition (June 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 020148319X
• ISBN-13: 978-0201483192
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 4.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #292,862 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A well written book about our prison system., February 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Live from Death Row (Paperback)

Growing up in Philadelphia I formed my negative opinions of Mumia and his case without ever having researched his history myself. However, after the most recent Free Mumia march in Philly, I felt obligated to look into the case that riled people into such a frenzy. What I found was a case based on shaky ground at best, making it a jewel for human right activists. However, I still was not convinced either way of Mumia's innocence or his guilt. I picked up Live From Death Row hoping to develop a more informed opinion, one that was supported by my own experience with Mumia's writing. Surprisingly however, I found that the book did not deal with Mumia's case at all and instead focused on the social injustices that are acted out in our prisons every day. Mumia's anecdotes were insightful and intelligent, leading the reader to keep flipping page after page. At the very least, the book was an educational review of life in prison and deep look into the soul of a death row inmate. While I finished the book no more enlightened on the Mumia innocence/guilt question than when I started, I got a well written snap shot of life on death row. Mumia's writing will keep your interest and his intelligence and love for life shine through.

20 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Moving and Inspirational, February 21, 2000

By 

Dustin Miller - See all my reviews

This review is from: Live from Death Row (Paperback)

I cant express in words how much this book spoke to me. There isnt a single person who should not read this book. Most people say "it tells of the conditions of our prison system" well it does that, but He says so much more. "Live From Death Row" is a tesament to the flaws of modern society, and as participants of that society we should under stand it. This book invokes understanding, as well as rage. I pity all those who havnt taken the time to take his words whole heartedly.

23 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Opens up your mind, October 28, 2001

By 

Martin Lemos (Millbrae) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Live from Death Row (Paperback)

The essays that Mumia writes here offer the reader an insight in the criminal justice system that you could only see if you are inside it. When reading this essays,the reader gets the feeling of depression, isolation, sadness and of despair that any person on death row might be feeling. To me, anytime that a reader can feel the emotion of a story, the writer has achieved a point. Now whether or not you agree with the death penalty, I think that you should read this book. It will force you to think about you position and see it justice is really being served. The irony now is that someone else has finally come forward and admitted to the murder that Mumia was convicted of, but Mumia is still in a life or death battle to be freed. I think that the reader will enjoy this book and be overwhelmed by the emotion