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Post by tulla63 on May 13, 2005 2:07:16 GMT -5
Hi Just thought I'd recommend some good reading for those interested in reading about death penalty. I hope that is OK although there is no specific section for that in this forum. I will post links to www.amazon.com because I used to order books from there. I'm sure you can get a hold of these books if you live in the USA much easier than we can from Norway. Also www.bn.com is a good alterternative to www.amazon.com as the books there are sometimes less expensive. ================== <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0385332947/ref=sib_rdr_dp/103-7640077-0723806?%5Fencoding=UTF8&no=283155&me=ATVPDKIKX0DER&st=books"> MAY GOD HAVE MERCY John C. Tucker On the evening of March 10, 1981, 19-year-old Wanda Fay McCoy, her head nearly severed from her body, bled to death on her bedroom floor. The small-town police who investigated the case quickly narrowed their focus on her brother-in-law, Roger Coleman. Their suspicions made sense: Wanda had been raped; Roger had once served time for sexual assault. The facts, at least superficially, all pointed to him as the killer. As the story unravels, though, the case seems less cut-and-dried, and the police's decision to focus so much of their energies on Coleman seems more and more a travesty. Yet, despite growing evidence of his innocence, Coleman was quickly tried, found guilty, and condemned to die. May God Have Mercy documents his long battle with the legal system and the ongoing efforts of his lawyers, as well as the media and numerous private citizens, to prove his innocence. John C. Tucker has written a chilling condemnation of politics as usual that is bound to challenge the assumptions of anyone who believes that the American justice system is concerned primarily with justice. Coleman's story is compelling, disturbing, and overwhelmingly frustrating. Even if you remember the case from its media coverage, you'll be shocked and horrified at this story and at the lack of concern, common sense, and basic humanity the American legal system can possess. I've read it twice. I'm in the process of trying to make a website out of this, and the lawyer has promised me additional information. Highly recommendable!! Love, Turid
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Post by catskillz on May 13, 2005 2:16:17 GMT -5
www.deathofinnocents.net/______________________ Taken from the website: Dear friends, In December 2004, I published my second book, "The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions". My first book was "Dead Man Walking", first published in 1993. I never dreamed one little book could have such power to unleash discussion and debate. Tim Robbins' film happened in 1996 and Jake Heggie composed the opera, which premiered in San Francisco in 2000 and now makes its way around the world. I also get on the road and give talks to civic groups, universities, churches and synagogues - a lot of talks over the past twenty years. It's amazing what happens to audiences as they hear stories and get information about the death penalty. They change their views and form long lines to sign the petition calling for a moratorium on the death penalty. In 2001, my organization, The Moratorium Campaign, together with the Sant'Egidio Community and Amnesty International, presented the secretary general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, with petitions containing over 3.2 million signatures, and those signatures keep on rolling in today. It's just that a lot of people are sleeping. They need waking up. I've been amazed at their good hearts, their decency. They really don't want the government to kill people but they've had no one to bring them close to the issue of the death penalty and wake them up. I need your help to spread the word about The Death of Innocents across cyberspace. I believe that electronic communication is the greatest grass-roots means of conveying information to masses of people, and I want to utilize that energy to get my new book into the hands of as many Americans as possible. The book contains the stories of two men I believe to be innocent who were executed and whom I accompanied to their deaths. The stories are going to break your heart. Then there's the story of the Supreme Court and the appeals courts which deny constitutional rights and rubber stamp death sentences without ever allowing a fresh hearing of the evidence. I encountered Justice Antonin Scalia in the New Orleans airport (would you believe he goes duck hunting with my brother Louie in Louisiana?). My encounter with him opens the chapter entitled "The Machinery of Death." The last chapter is called "The Death of Innocence" and tells stories of jurors and prosecutors and judges and wardens and politicians who get tainted and corrupted by the death penalty. In the end, with government killings snaring both innocent and guilty alike, we all lose our innocence. My hope is that this book will help us bring about the end of the death penalty. Will you join me? Sister Helen Prejean _____________________
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Post by catskillz on May 13, 2005 2:19:20 GMT -5
Norman Mailer - The Executioner's Song
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com The Executioner's Song is a work of unprecedented force. It is the true story of Gary Gilmore, who in 1977 became the first person executed in the United States since the reinstitution of the death penalty. Gilmore, a violent yet articulate man who chose not to fight his death-penalty sentence, touched off a national debate about capital punishment. He allowed Norman Mailer and researcher Lawrence Schiller complete access to his story. Mailer took the material and produced an immense book with a dry, unwavering voice and meticulous attention to detail on Gilmore's life--particularly his relationship with Nicole Baker, whom Gilmore claims to have killed. What unfolds is a powerful drama, a distorted love affair, and a chilling look into the mind of a murderer in his countdown with a firing squad.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
The New York Times Book Review, Joan Didion This is an absolutely astonishing book
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Post by tulla63 on May 13, 2005 2:21:31 GMT -5
Norman Mailer - The Executioner's Song ______________________ Editorial Reviews Amazon.com The Executioner's Song is a work of unprecedented force. It is the true story of Gary Gilmore, who in 1977 became the first person executed in the United States since the reinstitution of the death penalty. Gilmore, a violent yet articulate man who chose not to fight his death-penalty sentence, touched off a national debate about capital punishment. He allowed Norman Mailer and researcher Lawrence Schiller complete access to his story. Mailer took the material and produced an immense book with a dry, unwavering voice and meticulous attention to detail on Gilmore's life--particularly his relationship with Nicole Baker, whom Gilmore claims to have killed. What unfolds is a powerful drama, a distorted love affair, and a chilling look into the mind of a murderer in his countdown with a firing squad.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. The New York Times Book Review, Joan Didion This is an absolutely astonishing book _______________________ That is the BEST book I've read for my entire life!! Here's the book cover and info on how to get a hold of a copy. www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375700811/qid=1115975890/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-7640077-0723806I would also recommend the book written by Gary Gilmore's little brother Mikal Gilmore. The title of that book is Shot in the Heart. (See my next posting for more information) Thanks for adding this one! Love Turid
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Post by catskillz on May 13, 2005 2:30:11 GMT -5
That is the BEST book I've read for my entire life!! I would also recommend the book written by Gary Gilmore's little brother Mikal Gilmore. The title of that book is Shot in the Heart. Thanks for adding this one! No problem, it was the first book i read on the issue, took i from my parents shelf when i was a little bit younger. Very recommendable, i've recently started to re-read it. Thanks for the tip, i wasn't aware his brother wrote a book about it as wel. Best, catz.
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Post by tulla63 on May 13, 2005 2:33:16 GMT -5
The Norman Mailer book covers the events that led up to Gary Gilmore's execution on January 17. 1977 and it's mostly based on unvaluable interviews with his relatives, the police officers, his friends, etc. It gives a peek into his last months of his life. It's a HUGE book, but I read it in 2 evenings. No doubt a page turner! Here's the book written by his brother Mikal. He has done an enormous work trying to expose some of he family myths that this family was affected by, and he also provides a look into a horrifically and nightmarish childhood specifically, and also possible explanation why such an extremely intelligent person would become a criminal as opposed to anything else. I'd say the only field in which Gary Gilmore was not gifted in, was crime. Here's the book: and here's how you can order the book: www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385422938/qid=1115969632/sr=2-2/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_2/103-7640077-0723806Amazon.com "I have a story to tell. It is a story of murder told from inside the house where murder is born. It is the house where I grew up, a house that, in some ways, I have never been able to leave." Mikal Gilmore is a Rolling Stone writer and the youngest brother of murderer Gary Gilmore, who became, in 1977, the first person to be executed in the United States after a 10-year hiatus, a case which was subsequently recounted in Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song. This brave and eloquent book is the story that only Mikal Gilmore knows: the violence in multiple generations of his family, what the Gilmore house was like as he was growing up, his relationship with his brother, and his experience of the dramatic events surrounding Gary Gilmore's determination to be executed as planned, without appeal. Shot in the Heart pulls off the rare feat of conveying intense emotion without sentimentality or self-pity. The author's struggle is to set himself apart from the lurid true-crime fraternity of his father and brothers yet remain able to understand why he feels both guilty and lonely over his exclusion from his family's violent history. --Fiona Webster--This text refers to the Paperback edition. From Publishers Weekly Executed by firing squad in Utah in 1977 after murdering two young Mormon men, Gary Gilmore, who insisted he be put to death, gained notoriety through Norman Mailer's book The Executioner's Song and a TV film. In a haunting portrait of a dysfunctional family that molded a murderer, rock music journalist Mikal Gilmore, Gary's brother, fills in multiple gaps in Mailer's account by unearthing family secrets, traumas and horrors. Gary, frequently whipped and abandoned by his con man father, Frank Sr. (who later became a respectable publisher in Oregon), had an extensive history of robberies, arrests, suicide attempts and drug and alcohol abuse before his rage exploded in murder. We learn that Frank Sr. mistakenly suspected Gary was not his own son but the offspring of his embittered wife, Bessie, and Robert Ingram, Frank Sr.'s estranged son by a previous marriage. We also learn that Frank Jr.--long believed to be Mikal's full brother--was the issue of that long-suspected union. Mikal, who covered the case for Rolling Stone, writes with sensitivity and probing intelligence, exorcising family secrets and the stigma of being a murderer's brother. Photos. Author tour. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Post by tulla63 on May 13, 2005 2:51:48 GMT -5
Hi I've ordered "Within These Walls: Memoirs of a Death House Chaplain" by Carroll Pickett and Charlton Stowers. I just tracked the package and it will arrive here today. I'll let you know what I think of it once I've read it. www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0312287178/qid=1115970813/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-7640077-0723806?v=glance&s=booksIn 15 years, Pickett ministered to almost 100 condemned men in Texas. Because he was not allowed to hold their hands, he held the prisoners' ankles as they were administered lethal injections. This memoir, infused with the true crime style of coauthor Stowers, recalls the crimes of condemned men in horrifying detail, and then describes the equally upsetting state-sanctioned murder to which Reverend Pickett bore witness. Scenes outside of the death house show a chaplain of remarkable courage. Surviving divorce, a terrifying hostage crisis, and a frustrating morass of prison bureaucracy, Pickett persevered, bringing new life to the prison chapel and the prisoners who became his friends. Readers won't find theology here, or an analysis of how the awful things Pickett saw daily shaped his own spiritual path. Instead, this is a story of an extraordinary vocation, one for which being the chaplain sometimes meant sitting with a man, raped and bleeding, too terrified for his life to go to the hospital. A gripping look at America's prisons from a unique, and much needed, perspective. John Green Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Ivan Solotaroff, author of The Last Face You'll Ever See "A must-read for anyone interested in getting past the generalities of capital punishment as an 'issue.' ...cogent and unflinching..."
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Post by tulla63 on May 13, 2005 3:04:46 GMT -5
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Post by tulla63 on May 13, 2005 3:11:52 GMT -5
This book is a must read for those who wants to understand more of the history of the death penalty in the post furman era. Also a page turner. Once you open it, it's way too hard to put it back,and I've read it over and over again. I did not find this book in www.amazon.com but I did find it in www.bn.comsearch.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=gW4TNJSBaM&isbn=0449225232&itm=1Among the Lowest of the Dead: Inside Death Row ANNOTATION From the cavernous halls of justice to the desolate cells on death row, from the brutal crimes of the convicted to the unbearable anguish of the victims, prizewinning journalist David Von Drehle takes readers into the harrowing world of the ultimate punishment. A work of profound insight and stark vision, Among the Lowest of the Dead sheds a revelatory light on this deepest, darkest realm. FROM THE PUBLISHER " GRIPPING PORTRAIT . . . Von Drehle takes us inside the culture of the condemned seeking to live." —The Washington Post Book World From the cavernous halls of justice to the desolate cells on death row, from the brutal crimes of the convicted to the unbearable anguish of the victims, prizewinning journalist David Von Drehle takes us, as never before, into the harrowing world of the ultimate punishment. Here are the lawyers, on both sides, who dedicate their lives to saving or ending the lives of the accused. Here are the judges who pass the sentences and the politicians who pass the buck. And here are the inmates, staring at their walls and looking death in the face. A work of profound insight and stark vision, AMONG THE LOWEST OF THE DEAD sheds a revelatory light on this deepest, darkest realm. Acclaimed as one of the most powerful books ever written about crime and punishment in America, it is certain to shock both you . . . and the system. "BITTERLY HONEST . . . [Von Drehle ] frames the legal issues well and vividly evokes both the tense calm of the courtroom and the cramped, fetid gloom of prison cells." —The New York Times Book Review "SEDULOUSLY RESEARCHED AND BRILLIANTLY WRITTEN . . . Read this book; by all means read this book." —The Miami Herald
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Post by tulla63 on May 13, 2005 3:41:33 GMT -5
The book "Dead Wrong, A Deaath Row Lawyer Speaks Out Against Capital Punishment" by Michael Mello was issued in 1997. The stories which are being told are chilling and frustrating to say the least! Most of the stories are revolving around dp in Florida. Mello writes with such a passion that's perhaps not very common among lawyers (Hey - what do I know? ) Anyway: Here's the presention of the book which I recommend warmly! In a season busy with books about the death penalty, here is an idiosyncratic, almost experimental, but authoritative personal critique of the nation's system of capital punishment. Mello is a former postconviction counsel, representing Florida death-row inmates in challenges to their sentence-- challenges often popularly thought of as ``milking the system,'' as one judge said with reference to Ted Bundy. But Mello relentlessly demonstrates that such procedures generally unfold at a breakneck pace that understaffed counsel can barely keep up with, that delays are often the state's fault--and that the Bundy case's notoriety actually made it a de facto ``exception'' to the due-process rule. It is astonishing how many cases Mello can cite, from his own experience, of prisoners either executed or nearly executed in flagrantly unconstitutional circumstances due to indifference, incompetence, or outright hostility from the courts, considering that he has performed a mere 14 years of ``deathwork,'' as he calls it. However, Mello's often engagingly haphazard way of storytelling virtually ruins the two climactic accounts that introduce his decision to ``conscientiously abstain'' from continued work within the system, undermining the hyperbole with which, for example, he excoriates the decisions, regarding his clients, of Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell, whom he calls ``either stupid or malicious.'' Mello's own aversion to self-censorship also results in repetition; at least one episode that reads rather like score-settling; and an ``apologia'' for quitting deathwork startlingly announces that his reasons for doing so ``are beyond the scope of this book.'' For all that, death-penalty supporters--and opponents, for that matter--who do not read this unique insider's account of capital punishment as a capricious and nearly broken-down system will lay themselves open to the charge that they don't know what they're talking about. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.--This text refers to the Hardcover edition. Book Description "A blistering, well-annotated critique. . . . both passionate and eloquent."-Publishers Weekly starred review "Death-penalty supporters-and opponents, for that matter-who do not read this unique insider's account of capital punishment as a capricious and nearly broken-down system will lay themselves open to the charge that they don't know what they're talking about."-Kirkus Reviews "Mello separates himself from others who have written about death row. He is visceral, not cerebral . . . One of the nation's most passionate post-conviction lawyers."-Colman McCarthy, The Nation "Michael Mello is a poet, a storyteller, a wordsmith, and, thank God, a lawyer. Dead Wrong is an incisive, probing examination of life, death, and the law, at once wickedly funny, heart-wrenchingly human, and surgically precise. This is a book written in blood."-Mike Farrell, actor and president of California Death Penalty Focus Winner-1998 Award for Excellence in Indexing, American Society of Indexers and H. W. Wilson Company
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Post by tulla63 on May 13, 2005 3:50:13 GMT -5
Here's one of the many Ted Bundy books: "Ted Bundy, Conversations with a killer." www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1928704174/ref=sib_rdr_dp/103-7640077-0723806?%5Fencoding=UTF8&no=283155&me=ATVPDKIKX0DER&st=booksIf you aren't made of the same material as most people, it might be good and interestesting reading for you. If you may have problems reading about Ted Bundy and his murderes, stay away from it. I chose to read a couple of books about Ted Bundy, looking for something good in Ted Bundy, as I like to find good things in even the worst murderer. I failed. Here's the book: Michaud and Aynesworth spent weeks interwiewing psycho sex killer Bundy before Florida authorities executed him. Bundy's story was detailed by the duo in their chilling volume The Only Living Witness (Classics Returns, LJ 11/1/99). The best portion of that title was the excerpts from those interviews. Originally released in 1989, the book contains the full transcripts from those conversations. Without ever admitting that he performed any of these acts (he maintained his innocence until hours before his execution), Bundy offers a matter-of-fact, third-person account of how "someone" performing kidnappings, rapes, and murders might go about it and how that person might act under these circumstances. His frankness offers perhaps the most unfettered look into the mind of a serial killer, and many of his observations are quite surprising, as Bundy reveals himself to be clever, insightful, and intelligent--far from how most would picture a psychosexual killer. His revelations on the nature of the instinct to kill, where it comes from, how it grows, how victims are selected, etc., are invaluable to psychologists and investigators. This updated edition contains a new foreword by Robert Keppel, president of the Institute for Forensics. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. Ted Bundy: Conversations With A Killer, the death row interviews that chilled the nation in the 1980's, are again available in an updated paperback edition through major bookstores and online booksellers. Drawn from more than 150 hours of taped interviews by authors Stephen G. Michaud and Hugh Aynesworth, CONVERSATIONS WITH A KILLER takes readers inside the mind of an infamous sex criminal (one of the best-known serial killers of the past 100 years). In these timeless and unique interviews, Bundy gives both law enforcement professionals and the general public a close look at how this special breed of criminal thinks and behaves.
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Post by tulla63 on May 13, 2005 4:02:36 GMT -5
Here's another Ted Bundy book. This one I can recommend although you might have problems reading about his horrific acts. This one was written by Polly Nelson who was Ted Bundy's last lawyer. www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0688108237/ref=pd_sbs_b_3/103-7640077-0723806?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glanceBundy, who admitted to at least 30 murders and was executed in Florida in 1989, was one of America's most publicized serial killers, which perhaps explains the publication of this rather tedious account of the legal maneuvering that preceded his death. Nelson, an inexperienced associate of a Washington firm specializing in corporate law, accepted the case without knowing what it might entail. Yet she came to believe, as she notes twice in the first two chapters, "I was born to represent Ted Bundy." She went to work on the litigation in 1985, six years after Bundy had been convicted, drafting and/or presenting numerous appeals to various courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. But while the legal wrangling may interest lawyers, lay readers will not find it absorbing. The only material of general interest is Nelson's portrait of her client: she found him ingratiating but not especially bright, and adjudged him incompetent in legal matters, contrary to his own view. Illustrations not seen by PW. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal "I was born to represent Ted Bundy," writes lawyer Nelson, the reluctant heroine of this saga of serial killer Bundy's last three years of life. Assigned to the case as a "pro bono" project by her Washington law firm, Nelson details the tactics she used to keep Bundy off death row. The case was impossible to win, and the crimes against women would have repelled almost any female attorney except the humanitarian Nelson, who contends that "all human life is sacred, without judgment or distinction, and...the truly heinous cases...test whether we as a people and as a society really mean that." Like the heroines of the novels of old, Nelson plunges ahead in a battle that almost cost her sanity. Although often tedious, the book is useful as a legal study and a look at the motivations of a serial killer. An optional purchase. --Frances Sandiford, Green Haven Correctional Facility Lib., Stormville, N.Y. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. This book is out of print, by you may buy it from private persons via www.amazon.com What surprised me when I received this book in the mail, was that it came from a library! It has a stamp on it, reading "Penn Hills Library". I don't know - perhaps they were the ones who sold it to me, or perhaps somebody borrowed the book, didn't deliver it back and simply sold it. Now I'm going to give you guys a break. I have loads of good books about death penalty, but I'm moving right now and everything as a chaos. I think it would be great if people would recommend books to the rest of the forum users! Love, Turid PS: There is also a book that is now out of print, written by Nick Davies, titled White Lies. It's about Clarence Brandly. Luckily, I got this book as a birthday present from a very good friend in the US - which was his only copy. So if any of you know where I can get a hold of that book, so I can send him him a copy, it would be wonderful!
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Post by tulla63 on May 13, 2005 4:08:05 GMT -5
www.deathofinnocents.net/______________________ Taken from the website: Dear friends, In December 2004, I published my second book, "The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions". My first book was "Dead Man Walking", first published in 1993. I never dreamed one little book could have such power to unleash discussion and debate. Tim Robbins' film happened in 1996 and Jake Heggie composed the opera, which premiered in San Francisco in 2000 and now makes its way around the world. I also get on the road and give talks to civic groups, universities, churches and synagogues - a lot of talks over the past twenty years. It's amazing what happens to audiences as they hear stories and get information about the death penalty. They change their views and form long lines to sign the petition calling for a moratorium on the death penalty. In 2001, my organization, The Moratorium Campaign, together with the Sant'Egidio Community and Amnesty International, presented the secretary general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, with petitions containing over 3.2 million signatures, and those signatures keep on rolling in today. It's just that a lot of people are sleeping. They need waking up. I've been amazed at their good hearts, their decency. They really don't want the government to kill people but they've had no one to bring them close to the issue of the death penalty and wake them up. I need your help to spread the word about The Death of Innocents across cyberspace. I believe that electronic communication is the greatest grass-roots means of conveying information to masses of people, and I want to utilize that energy to get my new book into the hands of as many Americans as possible. The book contains the stories of two men I believe to be innocent who were executed and whom I accompanied to their deaths. The stories are going to break your heart. Then there's the story of the Supreme Court and the appeals courts which deny constitutional rights and rubber stamp death sentences without ever allowing a fresh hearing of the evidence. I encountered Justice Antonin Scalia in the New Orleans airport (would you believe he goes duck hunting with my brother Louie in Louisiana?). My encounter with him opens the chapter entitled "The Machinery of Death." The last chapter is called "The Death of Innocence" and tells stories of jurors and prosecutors and judges and wardens and politicians who get tainted and corrupted by the death penalty. In the end, with government killings snaring both innocent and guilty alike, we all lose our innocence. My hope is that this book will help us bring about the end of the death penalty. Will you join me? Sister Helen Prejean _____________________ Hi again Katz, I wasn't aware of this books existence. This one will have to be the next on my wish list. Thanks for letting me know! Love, Turid
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