Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Aug 31, 2011

Emily rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

9 comments like (6 people liked it)

Nov 08, 2011

Kate rated it:

This book is several things: an intimate and humane argument against the injustice of capital punishment, a critique of other anti-capital punishment literature, and, as Louisa Thomas, writing in The New York Times described Mary Clearman Blew's This is Not the Ivy League: "a kind of anti-memoir — an incredulous account, a catalog of confusion."
David R. Dow has been representing death row inmates for 20 odd years or so. Once a proponent of the death penalty, he got started More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 30, 2011

Brendan rated it:

It was okay. The legal parts were really good, but I was not digging all the detours into the family. I wanted to read a book about the legalities of capital punishment, not a father feeling guilty for not buying his kid a snowcone.

Also, I couldn't find any other reviewer here mention this, but my BS meter went off a few times. Many of the interactions he recounts with prisoners didn't ring true to me, and he seemed a little self-aggrandizing.

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Nov 20, 2011

Rachel rated it:

2.5 stars. I picked this book out one, because I wanted to read an opposing viewpoint for capital punishment and two, I'm always curious about criminal defense attorneys--how and why they try to protect and serve those who commit the most heinous crimes. This book disappointed on both expectations. The author explained those away in a couple paragraphs and chose to focus on the lives and stories of the death row inmates he has represented, which surprisingly diluted what I thought the author wa More...

0 comments like

Jul 29, 2011

Amy rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 22, 2011

Cynthia rated it:

I grew up in Texas and spent the majority of my adulthood there. Knowing this you might think I am for the death penalty and you would be wrong. The author is a death penalty attorney and law professor. He writes of many cases and references them and his family throughout the book. The main story of "Quaker" brought tears to my eyes. I have often wondered how "Christians" can play the part of God and put a person to death instead of just jailing them for life. I realize they More...

5 comments like (4 people liked it)

Apr 12, 2011

Ensiform rated it:

The author, a death-penalty defense lawyer in Texas, discusses some of his cases (with identifying details removed) and all their nail-biting, guilt-inducing, soul-crushing drama and tragedy. He mentions several cases as once, but most of the book centers on the case of a man he calls Quaker, who got a sickeningly unfair deal at his first trail and who seems innocent based on the evidence Dow has. Undeniably driven to do this work, and justifiably angry at what he perceives as uncaring, blatan More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 03, 2011

Meaghan rated it:

This is a brilliant memoir/creative nonfiction that has intensified my opposition to the death penalty. The author runs a legal aid clinic that handles death row inmates' appeals in Texas, a state notorious for its large number of executions. I knew the system was seriously flawed, but I didn't realize it was THIS bad. I was frankly horrified by what I read.

There are several cases in this story, but the central case involves a man convicted of murdering his wife and children, who is fa More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Oct 24, 2010

Bobby rated it:

David Dow's memoir is about some of the death-row inmates whom he's represented as their attorney, and all the injustices and challenges that exist where he practices (Texas). He use to support the death penalty but opposes it now...and after reading the book it's easy to see why.

I can see some people being turned off by the way the book is written: he skips back and forth between his interactions with his family (wife, son, and a dog) and his clients. However, it didn't bother me at More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 27, 2010

Mazola1 rated it:

David Dow represented hundreds of death row inmates. The vast majority were guily. Most were executerd. A few were mentally retarded. Almost all had horrendous upbringings and were severly damaged human beings. Some he disliked intensely. Some he regarded as just plain evil. And at least a few were innocent.

Dow's book sketches the reality of the death penalty in America and tells his own story -- that of a lawyer trying to stop his clients from being put to death and almost always l More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 20, 2010

Erin rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 07, 2010

Shawna rated it:

They say of murderous sociopaths that they know the difference between right and wrong they just don't care. After reading this book, I came to the same conclusion about the justices and public officials who hold life and death in their hands deciding the fates of the men and women on Texas's death row. This book is an unsentimental look at the internal legal works of the last rounds of the appeals process before a person is executed. I was stunned when at one point the court of appeals simpl More...

0 comments like

Mar 30, 2010

Salem rated it:

The first thought in reading The Autobiography of an Execution was that David Dow's life reminded me an awful lot of that of Mitch McDeere from The Firm. Not the mafia parts; just the long hours, beautiful wife, running and drinking and eating parts. I'm not sure if this was subconscious (I'm betting Dow has read Grisham), or if it just means that this is the life of a busy, driven Southern lawyer.

Of course, it shouldn't go without saying that Dow's book is much, much better than Gri More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 01, 2010

Felicity rated it:

If you're for the death penalty, I'm not convinced that reading books by lawyers such as David Dow seeking to save death-row inmates is really going to make any difference to what you think. So, what then, is the purpose of Dow's book, assuming he is preaching to an army of the converted...those who don't believe in the death penalty?

David Dow is an academic and a lead lawyer at Texas's non-profit anti-death penalty litigation center. The greatest strength of Dow's book is his fran More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 13, 2010

Joan added it

David Dow works in the belly of the beast. He's the litigation director of the Texas Defender Service, which represents death row inmates, mostly in federal habeas corpus proceedings (or what's left of them), and provides assistance to capital trial lawyers. The TDS' mission is to "establish a fair and just criminal justice system in Texas". Yeah, well, good luck with that one. In Texas, they'd as soon send you to Death Row as look at you.

This isn't, however, a diatribe again More...

0 comments like

May 20, 2011

Trish rated it:

Dow’s new book is made up of part philosophy, part law school 101, part case history, part memoir and part detective story. The most compelling part of these is the detective story, (where he tries to figure out if one of his clients is actually innocent) the worst part was his telling us too much about his precocious 6 –year old son (and while I understand that he wants to show us his personal life to give the rest of the story context, this was too much).

Dow tells us that he used More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 27, 2010

Noah rated it:

There's good news and a little bit of bad news: the good news is that this book blew me away. The writing is fluid, the story is gripping, and I could hardly put it down. The bad news is that it left a bad taste in my mouth because of the "mostly non-fiction" aspect. In an author's note at the beginning, Dow explains that in order to protect attorney-client confidentiality, he's changed and composited various facts and characters, but he claims the substance of the book is all true. Th More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

May 17, 2010

Mary rated it:

David Dow is an appellate attorney for death row inmates in Texas, which even before reading this book, I would have considered to be one of the more depressing, demoralizing jobs in existence. Dow does nothing to alter my assumptions about this. However, he is clearly in the right line of work - tireless, determined, unsentimental about his clients, but unwavering in his belief that capital punishment is a deeply flawed, deeply immoral institution.

Some readers may be frustrated by More...

0 comments like

Jul 08, 2010

Anna rated it:

I haven't sorted out entirely how I feel on the death penalty, but I'm more against it than for it. This book is one death-penalty lawyer's account of a few of the cases he's worked on. He's against the death penalty, now, but wasn't always. (He seems to like to remind the reader of that, for reasons unknown.)

The author himself was the frustrating part of this book - sometimes I just wanted him out of the way. I know that he had to for legality but I kind of hate that he had to chang More...

0 comments like

Apr 21, 2011

Jerry rated it:

The author is preaching to the choir here so I am naturally inclined to be sympathetic to his arguments. That said, he is well placed to shine a light on the issue of capital punishment in general, and it's place in he US judicial system in particular.

Choosing to make his points in the context of a single case is smart and illustrative of a wider issue. The fact that he believes his client to be innocent is actually atypical, and this lends pathos to he case in question. However the more interes More...

0 comments like

Jan 14, 2012

Emily rated it:

I had high hopes for this book. I listened to Terry Gross's interview the the author and it stuck with me for two years. When I finally picked it up and started reading it, it didn't live up to the interview ... so if you want to save yourself the trouble of 200+ pages, go here: http://www.npr.org/2011/04/08/135174462/...

Two things about this book bothered me: 1) the lack of punctuation when people are speaking and 2) the what-seem-like-random tangents the author takes to describe an i More...

0 comments like

Mar 22, 2011

Miranda rated it:

I thought this book was insightful, informative, emotional and enraging. I already knew I was against the death penalty from a moral viewpoint, but reading this taught me much more about the injustice in the legal system and served to strengthen my standpoint. I felt at times that there was a little too much personal input - his feelings of being a bad father, husband, etc - although in the afterword, he writes about how a reviewer criticised him for lack of personal input in a previous book h More...

0 comments like

Aug 16, 2011

Adrienne rated it:

Good book. I kinda of wish Row had continued the book how he was going, in giving short episodes with different cases, instead of pulling me along for one more detailed case, especially because the case he chose was about a pretty obviously innocent man, instead of someone who was guilty, which I think would've given his book and underlying argument more strength, and simultaneously served to highlight the vast inefficiencies of our court systems as they apply to death row cases. But the emotion More...

0 comments like

Jul 15, 2011

Megan rated it:

If, like me, you know next to nothing about the process that leads to an execution, this book is very eye-opening. However, despite the author's best attempts, I did not come off thinking we should get rid of the death penalty. Some of the descriptions of crimes committed by his clients (and others) are simply horrendous. I have no qualms about such people being executed. On the other hand, after reading this I wish there was a better way to ensure that defendants are represented by lawyers More...

0 comments like

Apr 09, 2011

Kevin rated it:

The Autobiography of an Execution actually deals in detail with three executions. One of the defendants is obviously guilty and is pretty much a despicable human being. A second defendant is put to death despite having an IQ of 53, well below the limit defining people as mentally fit. However, what makes this book such a powerful work is the third defendant who despite obviously being innocent, is trapped in judicial process that almost systematically executes anyone entering it. The author tell More...

0 comments like

Jun 02, 2011

Jackie rated it:

This book had me from the start, quoting Pablo Neruda and Cormac McCarthy on the same page. It is the memoir of a death-penalty attorney who navigates the procedural nightmares and emotional trials of representing death row inmates. In telling his clients' tales, the author demonstrates how unjust the criminal trial/appellate system can be for criminal defendants - e.g., an incompetent court-appointed trial lawyer (and there are many) who presents no defense witnesses and makes no objections More...

0 comments like

Jul 30, 2010

Michelle rated it:

This was a heartbreaking book. It took a long time for me to firmly decide what my position is on the death penalty. The opinion I held as a young woman is very different than the opinion I hold now. That’s to be expected because I most certainly am not the same person now that I was then. Reading this book made me recommit to my position and it pushed me to better verbalize and explain my position.

I’m not sure if this book would change the mind of someone who is a strong supporter o More...

0 comments like

Mar 07, 2010

Jim rated it:

A comfortable read that fits in naturally with my liberal inclinations. Dow is a lawyer who represents death row clients in Texas and lets his frustrations show. His argument is that the death penalty is wrong regardless of circumstances even though he admits to the nature of most of the people he represents. The book is not preachy and doesn’t get into the frivolous economics of the argument. It instead relies on his nature as a human being and inclinations of right and wrong to draw that concl More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 03, 2011

Jen rated it:

This book is comprised of a number of inter-connected vignettes detailing a period of a few months in the life of a death penalty lawyer (Dow) in Texas. If you thought your job was difficult try being a death penalty opponent in Texas.

Dow tackles head on the complicating moral issues that he deals with in defending death row inmates, but at the same time points out the myriad miscarriages of law that happen everyday. Unfortunately, I think Texas is not special in this way.
More...

0 comments like

May 13, 2011

Dwight rated it:

I think that this book can make anyone reconsider their position on capital punishment. Many of the people on death row are not the worst of the worst, or inherently evil the way that many people think. Its amazing how many clearly have diminished mental capacity or are mentally ill. Unfortunately, largely due to the attempted assassination on Reagan, it is nearly impossible to use mental illness as a a defense for criminal acts.

The writer also doesn't shy away from the effects th More...

0 comments like

reviews