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They're Going to Kill My Son
 
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They're Going to Kill My Son [Hardcover]

Shirley Dicks (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)


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Book Description

October 15, 1992
Eighteen year old Jeff Dicks goes for a ride with his new friend, Chief. While in the car, Chief begins talking about robbing an old man's store. Although Jeff believes that Chief's rambling is only aimless boasting, they drive by the store, Jeff stops the car and Chief goes in. Later, he comes running out and orders Jeff to drive away. In a daze, Jeff does what Chief tells him to do. That night, Jeff watches a TV newscast in horror as he learns that Chief has robbed and killed the storekeeper. Jeffrey Dicks, the son of an impoverished Tennessee mother, languishes on death row for a robbery he didn't commit and a murder he didn't even see. His mother, Shirley Dicks tells this tense, personal and highly moving story of the bloody crime and aftermath which changed and may end her son's life. Shirley was unable to afford a competent legal defense. At the trial, the family was shocked when vital evidence was never presented to the jury. Jeff, who has no history of volunteer or criminal behavior, was convicted of murder and sentenced to die in Tennessee's electric chair. Jeff's loved ones have never lost faith in his innocence, but they must share his daily burden of deadly uncertainty and experience the painful frustrations of their attempts to set him free. Shirley is fervently pursuing an appeal - but time is running out.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Dicks's son Jeff has been on death row in the Tennessee state penitentiary since 1982, when he was sentenced for participating in a 1978 holdup-murder. That he sat in the getaway car while an acquaintance committed the slaying is verified, but according to the law, he is guilty nonetheless. As portrayed here by his mother, Jeff was a naive, overprotected youth who was deeply compassionate toward the dispossessed; in her view, that helps to explain his association with the killer and with the orphan he married, who turned out to be a troubled wife and mother. Dicks ( Death Row ) chides herself for bungling every effort she made to help her son's defense, and his lawyer is presented as having been more interested in his fee than in his client. Although she diminishes the book's emotional impact by writing in the third person, Dicks makes her case convincingly, and readers are likely to agree that Jeff's death sentence is not just. 20,000 first printing.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The sheer weight of reasonable doubt in this case makes one wonder at the trial and appeals process in death penalty cases where the accused lack the financial resources for competent legal representation. Jeff Dicks is down to his last appeal. This book, written by his mother, shockingly brings home the best argument against capital punishment--that even after a "fair" trial an innocent person might be put to death. Dicks's account is both a cry of anguish and a testimony to the lengths a mother will go to try to save the life of her child. Jeff is not a savage killer with a long rap sheet. He is a naive kid who found himself in the wrong company, at the wrong place and time. Dicks argues that the proficiency of the law enforcement agencies, judicial system, press, and legal profession are at best questionable, more possibly prejudiced, and maybe even corrupt. She convinces the reader that the bungled defense of her son because he could not afford a better lawyer is prevalent in similar cases. Recommended for true crime collections.
- Robert Hodder , Memorial Univ. of Newfoundland Lib., St. John's
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 200 pages
  • Publisher: New Horizon Press (October 15, 1992)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0882821121
  • ISBN-13: 978-0882821122
  • Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,487,046 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm an author of twelve books both traditional and self published which are listed on my website at www.shirleydicks.org

Learning photography now in order to do some travel articles with photos. Also working on two non fiction books plus a romance.

Will be adding my books as ebooks in the near future

 

Customer Reviews

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Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Very good, April 29, 2004
This review is from: They're Going to Kill My Son (Hardcover)
This book is very touching and you can feel the reality of it all. If a person thinks our judicial system is fair and right you will question your beliefs after reading this book. It tells it like it is.
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0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Heartbreaking, August 31, 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: They're Going to Kill My Son (Hardcover)
This book was a heartbreaking book to read and knowing it was a true account made it even more so. The reader is grabbed from the first page to the last as they wait breathtaking to the very end, hoping against hope for a happy ending. It's hard to believe such things happen today in America but we are hearing of it more and more. My heart goes out to the author who did a great job of putting her story down and a breathtaking story it was. It read like fiction and was wonderfully done
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