Congregation of the Condemned: Voices Against the Death Penalty

A collection of 49 essays calling for an end to the death penalty by death-row inmates, members of victims' families, legal and medical experts, religious and political figures (e.g. Edward Kennedy, Mario Cuomo), journalists (e.g. Tom Wicker), entertainers (e.g. Mike Farrell, Peter Gabriel), and spokespersons from such organizations as Amnesty International, the NAACP (Coretta Scott King), and the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

This is gripping reading. The words of death-row inmates on the subject of capital punishment jump off the page. Fear, hope, bitterness, regrets, love and the anguish of their last minutes are all here. The book is compiled by the mother of Tennessee death-row inmate Jeff Dicks. He's here too. So are other relatives of inmates and victims. Doctors, activists, lawyers, Edward Kennedy, Coretta Scott King, Mario Cuomo and Camille Gabriel, mother of a murder victim, also contribute essays. Among their persuasive conclusions: it is the poor who are executed, and some of them are innocent. "What good is the law if it can't protect the innocent from false imprisonment?" asks one inmate. This book makes one wonder.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.