Execution Protocol

Interviews with executioners, prisoners on death row, and the designer of the lethal injection machine, as well as personal observations, provide an eye-opening study of capital punishment in America. 20,000 first printing. TV tie-in. Tour.

In 1991 filmmaker-journalist Trombley investigated the official U.S. process (or protocol) for executing convicts sentenced to death. He interviewed Fred Leuchter, the inventor of a lethal injection machine used in several states, who told of botched executions and of how to execute a person "properly" when using gas or injection. (Leuchter's motto is "capital punishment, not capital torture.") At Missouri's Potosi Correctional Center, where "death row" inmates are housed with lifers, Trombley spoke with administrators, security staff, doctors, chaplains and counselors involved in carrying out executions. He also talked with prisoners sentenced to death, most of whom seemed able to face their situation more squarely and insightfully than the officials, on the basis of the little that they reveal about their personal reactions to their work. Trombley's report, the basis for a documentary film of the same name as the book's title, is all the more thought-provoking and chilling for being written in a straightforward, non-judgmental manner. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The debate on capital punishment continues, although 37 states have legalized it. Trombley visited Missouri's Potosi Correctional Center, where executions are routinely carried out. Here he interviewed Fred Leuchter, who invented the lethal injection machine; the chaplain; the psychologist; correctional officers; and men on death row. He skillfully follows an inmate from his sentencing to his execution and to the reaction afterward. The details are chilling and macabre. Although Trombley does not openly argue for or against the death penalty, the material he includes makes one wonder whether it is a defensible means of punishment for a civilized society. The book is not for everyone, but it is highly recommended where there is an interest. See also Michael Radelet and others' In Spite of Innocence: Erroneous Convictions in Capital Cases, reviewed above.--Ed.
- Frances Sandiford, Green Haven Correctional Facility Lib., Stormville, N.Y.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.