Finding Life On Death Row: Profiles of Six Inmates

JOSEPH CARL SHAW, A MILITARY policeman who suffered from schizophrenia and attempted to medicate himself with illegal drugs, committed two murders after being turned away from a mental health clinic; a court-appointed lawyer advised him to plead guilty and put his fate in the hands of a politically ambitious judge who sentenced him to death. Judy Haney was convicted of killing a man who had abused her and her children; she was represented by a lawyer who appeared in court so drunk that the presiding judge sent him to jail to dry out, and then later appointed the same lawyer to handle Haney's appeal. For many prisoners on death row, the stories are similar, the dispensing of justice questionable. Katya Lezin now shows in this thought-provoking book how an array of factors often leads people to commit capital crimes - and how perfunctory treatment by judges and court-appointed attorneys often leads them to death row. Drawn from the case files of appeals attorney Stephen B. Bright, Lezin provides illuminating profiles of six convicted murderers, two of whom have been executed. Her portraits of these men and women cast new light on the inequities inherent in the criminal justice system and offer food for thought for anyone struggling with the moral dilemmas raised by the death penalty.