Condemned to Die : Life Under Sentence of Death /
Johnson, Robert,
Condemned to Die : Life Under Sentence of Death / by Robert Johnson. - Second edition. - 1 online resource (164 pages) : 1 illustrations, text file, PDF
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Frontispiece: The Smell Came -- FOREWORD BY ROBERT BOHM -- PART I: THE DEATH SENTENCE AND THE CONDEMNED -- 1. MAN AGAINST HIMSELF: STUDYING THE HUMAN DIMENSIONS OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT -- 2. PATHWAYS TO DEATH ROW -- PART II: THE EXPERIENCE OF DEATH ROW CONFINEMENT -- 3. ROOTS OF POWERLESSNESS -- 4. DEATH WORK AND THE CRUCIBLE OF FEAR -- 5. CONTEMPLATING EXECUTION -- 6. A LIVING DEATH -- PART III: REFLECTIONS ON LIFE UNDER SENTENCE OF DEATH AND THE LIMITS OF DEATH PENALTY REFORM -- 7. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: THE VIEW FROM DEATH ROW -- AFTERWORD BY CRAIG HANEY -- Epigram: Burnt Offerings.
Condemned to Die is a book about life under sentence of death in American prisons. The great majority of condemned prisoners are confined on death rows before they are executed. Death rows typically feature solitary confinement, a harsh regimen that is closely examined in this book. Death rows that feature solitary confinement are most common in states that execute prisoners with regularity, which is to say, where there is a realistic threat that condemned prisoners will be put to death. Less restrictive confinement conditions for condemned prisoners can be found in states where executions are rare. Confinement conditions matter, especially to prisoners, but a central contention of this book is that no regimen of confinement under sentence of death offers its inmates a round of activity that might in any way prepare them for the ordeal they must face in the execution chamber, when they are put to death. In a basic and profound sense, all condemned prisoners are warehoused for death in the shadow of the executioner. Human warehousing, seen most clearly on solitary confinement death rows, violates every tenet of just punishment; no legal or philosophical justification for capital punishment demands or even permits warehousing of prisoners under sentence of death. The punishment is death. There is neither a mandate nor a justification for harsh and dehumanizing confinement before the prisoner is put to death. Yet warehousing for death, of an empty and sometimes brutal nature, is the universal fate of condemned prisoners. The enormous suffering and justice caused by this human warehousing, rendered in the words of the prisoners themselves, is the subject of this book.
9781351112390(e-book : PDF)
Death row inmates--United States.
Death row inmates.
Electronic books.
HV8699 / .U5
364.660973
Condemned to Die : Life Under Sentence of Death / by Robert Johnson. - Second edition. - 1 online resource (164 pages) : 1 illustrations, text file, PDF
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Frontispiece: The Smell Came -- FOREWORD BY ROBERT BOHM -- PART I: THE DEATH SENTENCE AND THE CONDEMNED -- 1. MAN AGAINST HIMSELF: STUDYING THE HUMAN DIMENSIONS OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT -- 2. PATHWAYS TO DEATH ROW -- PART II: THE EXPERIENCE OF DEATH ROW CONFINEMENT -- 3. ROOTS OF POWERLESSNESS -- 4. DEATH WORK AND THE CRUCIBLE OF FEAR -- 5. CONTEMPLATING EXECUTION -- 6. A LIVING DEATH -- PART III: REFLECTIONS ON LIFE UNDER SENTENCE OF DEATH AND THE LIMITS OF DEATH PENALTY REFORM -- 7. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: THE VIEW FROM DEATH ROW -- AFTERWORD BY CRAIG HANEY -- Epigram: Burnt Offerings.
Condemned to Die is a book about life under sentence of death in American prisons. The great majority of condemned prisoners are confined on death rows before they are executed. Death rows typically feature solitary confinement, a harsh regimen that is closely examined in this book. Death rows that feature solitary confinement are most common in states that execute prisoners with regularity, which is to say, where there is a realistic threat that condemned prisoners will be put to death. Less restrictive confinement conditions for condemned prisoners can be found in states where executions are rare. Confinement conditions matter, especially to prisoners, but a central contention of this book is that no regimen of confinement under sentence of death offers its inmates a round of activity that might in any way prepare them for the ordeal they must face in the execution chamber, when they are put to death. In a basic and profound sense, all condemned prisoners are warehoused for death in the shadow of the executioner. Human warehousing, seen most clearly on solitary confinement death rows, violates every tenet of just punishment; no legal or philosophical justification for capital punishment demands or even permits warehousing of prisoners under sentence of death. The punishment is death. There is neither a mandate nor a justification for harsh and dehumanizing confinement before the prisoner is put to death. Yet warehousing for death, of an empty and sometimes brutal nature, is the universal fate of condemned prisoners. The enormous suffering and justice caused by this human warehousing, rendered in the words of the prisoners themselves, is the subject of this book.
9781351112390(e-book : PDF)
Death row inmates--United States.
Death row inmates.
Electronic books.
HV8699 / .U5
364.660973