Writing for Their Lives: Death Row USA

Edited by Marie Mulvey-Roberts
Foreword by Jan Arriens
Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2007

Those who reside on death row exemplify various polarities such as hope versus despair, resignation versus rebirth, doubt versus faith, and optimism versus fear.  Without publications such as Writing for Their Lives, these realities are likely not to surface within the public consciousness.  These individuals may have committed grievous acts against others but they are still human beings who endure degrees of deprivation, humiliation, and isolation.  What becomes blatantly clear reading this book is that these deprivations go beyond the experiences of those in general population and are occurring in death row wards across the United States.

Proponents of the death penalty argue it serves as a deterrent to homicide and other violent crimes.  However, research has generally not found support for this position.  What Writing for Their Lives does is, in effect, increase our awareness of the realities of the death penalty and the many years it takes to execute the death warrant.  In none of the contributions did I sense hatred or anger, rather expressions of frustration and injustice.   An example of injustice raised is the great variation in the procedures employed for execution by lethal injection. As the editor outlines, these variations include the timing of the last meal (a few hours before can cause death through asphyxiation by vomiting) and the dose of sodium thiopental to induce unconsciousness (the recommended dose is 2.5g. yet as little as 0.5g. is administered in some states).  Several days prior to their execution, these men and women are isolated with only a Bible and their legal papers while under a 24 hour watch.  These are but a few examples of the isolation, invasions of privacy, and injustice that occurs on death row.

Politicians and elected judicial officials hold the power of life and death.  Only at the stage of appealing to the Supreme Court of the United States (having past the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals), are officials not elected.  Yet, the habeas corpus applications must be based on miscarriages in the judicial process and not the innocence or guilt of the individual, per se.  Unfortunately, we find that over 90% of capital cases involve an inadequate, inexperienced, and underpaid court-appointed attorney who has little financial resources to secure expert testimony or other evidentiary examinations.  Days before the former Illinois Governor George Ryan’s term was over he commuted all death sentences in the state to life imprisonment due to the unacceptable number of death row inmates exonerated due to new evidence (e.g. DNA analysis, procedural). 

For these reasons, this book is aptly named as many of the submissions represent writing to survive.  Living on death row and the process of state execution is devoid of dignity and places the United States in a small group of nations employing this type of criminal sanction.  Whether the reader is a supporter or opponent of the death penalty, this edited volume is in many ways not about the morality or justifications surrounding this issue but more about the voices of the condemned, be that justly or unjustly placed on death row.

The book is broken up into seven parts.  Part 1 entitled “Essays and speeches on the death penalty” contains a compilation of voices that include politicians, death row inmates, human rights advocates, and the victims’ family members.  The former Governor of Illinois, George Ryan, speaks on the reasons for his decision to commute the death sentences based on the results from a three year investigation.  Prior to commissioning the inquiry, Governor Ryan was an ardent supporter of the death penalty.  Richard Rossi, a death row inmate in Arizona, has two articles in this section.  The first submission discusses Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466 (2000).  This case challenges the constitutionality of imposing a death sentence by only a judge and not a judge and jury.  The second piece is on the issues of closure for friends and family of the victim.  An important voice for the victim is presented by Celeste Dixon who is a member of the Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation.  Finally, an address given at the Notre Dame Law School by Stephen B. Bright, Director of the Southern Center for Human Rights, concludes Part 1.

The next two parts concern the day-to-day living for death row inmates.  The contributions in Part 2 (“Accounts of life on death row”) speak to the structure and composition of pods and the daily routines on death row including 23 hours of solitary confinement, one hour of recreation, a shower three times a week, visitation parameters (e.g. no physical contact, cancellations, prohibitions), changing cells every week in some institutions, and cell extractions.  In short, this section provides descriptions in the inmates’ own words of how they attempt to function on death row.  Part 3 “Execution” is what the title suggests.  Death row inmates share information and perceptions on the appeal process, death warrants, stays of execution, and implementing the death sentence via the gas chamber, electrocution, and lethal injection.

Parts 4 and 5, “Poems” and “Short Stories” respectfully, provide an outlet for the creative work of death row inmates.  This section of Writing for Their Lives is reminiscent of Weinstein and Jaccone’s (2007) Prison Voices which is a compilation of the work of thirteen individuals incarcerated in the Canadian federal penal system.  These men and women shared their hearts, their writing, and their personal journeys with the reader.  Much the same is occurring in this book.  Part 4 contains poems that include emotional expressions across the spectrum.  Part 5 contains short stories written by death row inmates about the reality of living on death row.  At times, I found myself wondering how much was fiction and how much was based on their real life experiences.  Parts 6 and 7 are also similar in content.  Part 6 “Interviewing Prisoners” presents two interviews of which one was conducted on paper by another death row inmate.  Part 7 is a compilation of correspondence, journal entries, and a prison report on the inhumane state of death row in Mississippi.

Writing for Their Lives is a thought provoking book that challenges characterizations created of these individuals as unfeeling or unrepentant monsters.  This book is ideal for those who are interested in more information on the death penalty, particularly from the voices of those sentenced to death and others that do not support this sanction as it is conceived.  This book would also serve well in any penology classroom that investigates the modalities of punishment across the formal social control spectrum.  Writing for Their Lives is not a technically arduous read but most certainly takes the reader on an ethical, moral, and emotional journey.

Weinstein, L., & Jaccone, R. (eds.) (2007). Prison voices. Kingston, ON: John Howard Society of Canada and Fernwood Publishing, 2007. [Reviewed for the Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice]