The Autobiography of an Execution
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4.5 • 60 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A riveting, artfully written memoir of a lawyer's life as he races to prevent death row inmates from being executed.
Near the beginning of The Autobiography of an Execution, David Dow lays his cards on the table. "People think that because I am against the death penalty and don't think people should be executed, that I forgive those people for what they did. Well, it isn't my place to forgive people, and if it were, I probably wouldn't. I'm a judgmental and not very forgiving guy. Just ask my wife."
It this spellbinding true crime narrative, Dow takes us inside of prisons, inside the complicated minds of judges, inside execution-administration chambers, into the lives of death row inmates (some shown to be innocent, others not) and even into his own home--where the toll of working on these gnarled and difficult cases is perhaps inevitably paid. He sheds insight onto unexpected phenomena-- how even religious lawyer and justices can evince deep rooted support for putting criminals to death-- and makes palpable the suspense that clings to every word and action when human lives hang in the balance.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In an argument against capital punishment, Dow's capable memoir partially gathers its steam from the emotional toll on all parties involved, especially the overworked legal aid lawyers and their desperate clients. The author, the litigation director of the Texas Defender Service and a professor at the University of Houston Law Center, respects the notion of attorney-client privilege in this handful of real-life legal outcomes, some of them quite tragic, while acknowledging executions are "not about the attorneys," but "about the victims of murder and sometimes their killers." While trying to maintain a proper balance in his marriage to Katya, a fellow attorney and ballroom dancer, he spells out the maze of legal mumbo-jumbo to get his clients stays or released from confinement in the cases of a hapless Vietnam vet who shot a child, another man who beat his pregnant wife to death and another who killed his wife and children. In the end, Dow's book is a sobering, gripping and candid look into the death penalty.
Customer Reviews
Great Read
Absorbing and uplifting- the story of grueling,uncompromising effort on behalf of those everyone else has turned against. A quick read too with food for thought.
Insightful
Great depth. Eye opener.
A great and sobering read
David Dow does a wonderful job of bringing the reader into the life of a death penalty lawyer, or at least of one who has other lawyers who report to him. I've always regretted practicing law in the civil context, where my work is usually meaningless in the end, and have dreamed of the ability to practice law in the public interest. Mr. Dow's book, though, makes it abundantly clear that even work that has the power to save a person's life can be rendered almost meaningless when performed in the context of an unfair judicial system. His work is admirable and the telling of it is engaging and thought-provoking. Highly recommend.