The Autobiography of an Execution

Nov 08, 2011 Kate rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: memoirs, biography, legalese, american-studies, social-justice, new-in-2010, the-stacks

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 in the business as...more 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 in the business as an academic exercise: early on in his career he set out to compare the competancies of lawyers representing death row inmates in Virginia, Florida and Texas. What he found was troubling enough to take up the mantel of defense of men and women sentenced to death, most of them guilty of absolutely heinous crimes, not out ofany great sense of compassion for them but out of a strong belief in the Rule of Law, which, as we find in Autobiography of an Execution, most prosecutors, judges and defense lawyers don't seem to give a damn about. Dow's argument against the death penalty is this: if the system is this screwed up, no one can expect justice from the system. If the system by which the state administers justice is too screwed up to administer justice then that state does not have the authority to execute anyone.
I rest my personal opposition to the death penalty on a belief in the sanctity of human life, QED. This position falls flat however, when taking it in argument against someone (or some system) that does not recognize or believe in sanctity. Dow's position is very important, then, for abolitionists. He offers an abolitionist position that does not rely on a belief in the sanctity of human life.
AOAE is Dow's account of how the Rule of Law has broken down in capital cases in Texas; we are taken through five or six narratives (Dow is bound by legal code and ethics not to share identifying details about his clients, and these narratives represent cases that he and his colleagues have worked on, though names, dates and identifying details have been changed) that demonstrate what happens when a man or woman is sentenced to death. Dow takes the reader through a light crash course in the legal basics and what he and his colleagues go through to prevent their client's executions. Dow has a strong moral backbone and makes his case against capital punishment skillfully and subtlely. I was furious after reading of the institutionalized callousness of the death penalty machine: that a man may go do his death because a computer server was down and his lawyer left unable to file a motion in time. That a judge would write an op-ed saying that in angered him he couldn't schedule dinner parties on nights of executions because the last minute phone calls from lawyers trying to save a man or woman's life (no matter how heinous that person may be) disrupted his dinner. The ridiculous sense of priviledge and entitlement that those in power have blew my mind. I am a lowly bench scientist, but if there is work for me to do after five o'clock, I stay at work until its finished. I don't think that we should expect any less from lawyers or federal court judges.

Dow does not reward himself for his work; he is far tougher on himself, as a lawyer, as a father, and as a person, than he is on the machine that he fights so ruthlessly. I've never read a memoir by anyone who knows the facts of them selves so well, and yet is so honest in their refusal to fake a linear narrative of their lives. This is a true anti-memoir: Dow has far more questions for himself than he has answers for the reader. This is a fitting stance to take, as it puts the reader in the mind to question themselves, as well, and once in a questioning mood, perhaps question whether we, as a nation, may put a man or woman to death and call it justice, when we know so little of our own motivations.

There was some poor editing: Jeremy Winston has two life stories, making it too obvious that he is, in reality, at least two people. Also, if I, as a fellow bourbon drinker may quibble: Dow once mentions that after his first capital case, he took a case of Jack Daniels with him to his cabin on Galveston Island. Later, he refers to such as 'A case of bourbon'. Sir, if you were a true bourbon drinker, you would know this to be false.

An Autobiography of an Execution is highly recommended as an excellent (anti) memoir, and for those readers who care about the administration of justice.(less)

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May 30, 2011 Brendan rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011

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.

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Apr 15, 2013 Jill rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

David Dow took a subject that many of us in the US like to ignore, the death penalty, and personalized it in a nearly perfect way--not just by telling the true stories of the death row inmates he represents, but also by weaving it together with his own life and family.

We don't like to be reminded that we, as a country, sentence people to death. The author admits that the majority of his clients are guilty. They are. He doesn't tiptoe around the fact that his job is to keep them alive, even if i...more

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Mar 07, 2013 Colleen Stinchcombe rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Whatever your feelings toward the death penalty, this is a fascinating read. It’s nonfiction, the story of Dow’s dealings as a death penalty lawyer who tries to keep people from being executed on death row — which does not mean he necessarily proves their innocence or downgrades their sentence. If someone dies from pneumonia instead, he considers it a “victory.” If he can push their sentence back a few days, a victory.

A few things I found interesting about this book:

It largely focuses on Dow an...more

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Jul 03, 2012 Karol.holden rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

3.5 stars, really. The topic of the death penalty, especially as it's implemented in Texas, is of very high interest to me, and I enjoyed David Dow's (or Doc's, to his friends) perspective. The book is certainly an easy read. The narrative disappoints, though, only on a mere technicality: his writing lacked flow. I longed for paragraph breaks (even though the book is short) and some occasional transitional phrases. The delivery was very choppy. But, it definitely picks up in the last third book,...more

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May 26, 2012 Andy Small rated it 3 of 5 stars

The death penalty in America is a genre in itself. Since the punishment was reinstated in 1976, a library’s-worth of books and films have been produced on the topic. Everyone from academics (Stephen B. Bright) to avant-garde film-makers (Werner Herzog) have had a crack at studying this ungainly mixture of revenge and procedure, which defines and divides the United States.

In this book, Texan capital defence lawyer David R. Dow adds to the genre with a work that is fictional, but based on real dea...more

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Apr 21, 2012 Amber rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is a screed—but it’s a screed that everyone with any interest in understanding how the American legal system works should read. The author has a very interesting perspective, having worked for Texas death-row inmates, and he is, I would say, enraged at how the legal system has treated them. The book is written somewhat unconventionally—not separated into chapters, really, more just pauses, and with a rather plaintive writing style—but the content is so important, and engrossing, that b...more This book is a screed—but it’s a screed that everyone with any interest in understanding how the American legal system works should read. The author has a very interesting perspective, having worked for Texas death-row inmates, and he is, I would say, enraged at how the legal system has treated them. The book is written somewhat unconventionally—not separated into chapters, really, more just pauses, and with a rather plaintive writing style—but the content is so important, and engrossing, that by the third page or so, you forget that it’s different at all. And certainly it’s well written, just a little differently than the non-fiction I usually read.

In several cases, his writing is so powerful that, upon rereading my notes, I’m struck by just how perfectly he has described the situation. One such example is when he describes how his own feelings on the death penalty have evolved: “I changed my mind when I learned how lawless the system is. If you have reservations about supporting a racist, classist, unprincipled regime, a regime where white skin is valued far more highly than dark, where prosecutors hide evidence and policemen routinely lie, where judges decide what justice requires by consulting the most recent Gallup poll, where rich people sometimes get away with murder and never end up on death row, then the death-penalty system we have here in America will embarrass you to no end.”

Interestingly, however, the primary focus of the book is about a death-row inmate he believes is innocent. For some, this may undermine his point above, about how guilty inmates are treated, but to me it was no less powerful. He reserves particular animosity toward the court of appeals with jurisdiction for Texas, and points out egregious examples of their upholding the death penalty even in cases with egregious racism in jury selection, with lawyers who didn’t point out their client’s extremely low IQ score, lawyers waited too long to identify proof of innocence, lawyers slept through trial, etc., and claims that the judges hide their lawlessness inside legalese. In another particularly poignant comment, he notes that “most people say that the murderer got treated better than his victim, and that pretty much sums up the attitude of the judges on the court of appeals as well.”

In one lighter moment, he recalls a conversation with a nun, who noted that the support for the death penalty is a mile wide and an inch deep. To which the author notes that you can drown in an inch of water. I found that exchange a particularly apt analogy for the death penalty’s staying power despite its massive legal and moral issues.

This book certainly isn’t uplifting, and at times is upsetting to read, which is all the more reason it’s an essential read. Highly recommended.
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Nov 20, 2011 Rachel rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 theytry 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 was...more

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Jul 29, 2011 Amy Snyder rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I picked this book up an a whim because it looked good. It was far better than I ever imagined. I breezed through it in the past couple days when I needed a break from college work. It really changed the way I feel about the death penalty. Although the book is fiction, it is based on the experiences of a real death penalty lawyer. He was extremely convincing in his reasons for disagreeing with the death penalty, such as human beings not having the right to take the lives of others, and everyone...more

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Apr 22, 2011 Cynthia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 refer to "an eye for...more 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 refer to "an eye for an eye" from the Bible, but where does it say "kill someone because you think they are guilty?" The cost of appeals for a death row inmate is so much higher than to just imprison a person for life. And if you are rich and white, 99% of the time you won't end up on death row. (I know there are a few exceptions but how often do you hear of them being executed?) Basically in Texas, the judicial system is a sad joke for those of color and little financial means facing a murder charge. DNA does not always exonerate a person there. I personally know of a famous former oilman who got away with murder in Texas who lives in the same neighborhood as a good friend of mine. He is rich and white. He became a Christian after his former wife's daughter's death and used this to his advantage in court. Between that and his expensive attorney, he now lives in a nice house with a new wife scott free.If he had been darker skinned and poor,good luck to him with a state appointed attorney. Those guys are not always bad - but many are burned out and get little to nothing in pay, so why should they bother to adequately research a client's case? Anyway, if you are on the fence regarding the death penalty, this book should persuade you against it. If you are for it, this book will probably make you think you are right. And if you are against it, this book will just make you angrier and sadder about the state of Texas's judicial system. I am proud to be a Texan but I am ashamed about the executions that take place just off of the freeway on the drive to Houston from Dallas.(less)

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Apr 12, 2011 Ensiform rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: justice, non-fiction

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, blatantl...more 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, blatantly unfair, and hypocritical judges who sign death orders from afar, he is plagued by nightmares and sometimes overly harsh with his young son. He depicts his home life, with his wife whom he adores and his five-year-old, as a refuge, but one that too often is violated by the on-call nature of his work.

It makes for truly compelling reading, as Dow tells it, giving a vain scintilla of hope to the hopeless and mostly forsaken, only to deliver disappointment, and be disappointed, time and again. Dow tries at times too hard to be the poet, eschewing quotation marks, postmodern hipster style, and possibly infusing his son’s comments about life and cruelty with more weight than they truly carry. And at times he is in need of an editor, often dropping a subject and referring to a previous subject with an “it” or “he” so that it’s not clear whom he’s referring to. And perhaps an editor would have convinced Dow tone down the "women sure do hit on clueless ol’ me a lot" bits that only serve to make him look self-aggrandizing or wallowing in false modesty or both. He mentions in his afterword that a previous book of his was reviewed by a critic who said it had a lot of facts but nothing of him in it. Of course, everyone’s tolerance for authorial ego varies, and yes, I understand that he was trying to show the delicate balance defense attorneys must carve out to stay sane, but frankly I wish there had been less of Dow in this one, and more on the nuts and bolts of his late nights futilely trying to save the unsympathetic. (less)

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Apr 03, 2011 Meaghan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2011, true-crime, memoirs, serial-murder, death-penalty

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 facing execu...more

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Oct 24, 2010 Bobby rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed

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 all; in fa...more

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Aug 27, 2010 Mazola1 rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 losing. His w...more 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 losing. His work would seem to be stressful in the extreme and extremely discouraging, yet as Dow describes it, the reader comes to understand why it is important. In spare and simple prose, Dow describes his day to day work, his clients, and the effect his work has on his home and family life and his dreams.

If Dow himself is one focus of the book, the other is the death penalty itself. The book provides food for thought for both those who support and those who oppose the death penalty. The reality is that a lot of poor defendants don't get anything like competent legal representation, even when their lives are at stake. The reality is that racism is often a factor. The reality is that many defendants are given the death penalty on something less than airtight evidence. The reality is that prosecutors, judges and jurors are often far more concerned with punishing those they perceive or believe to be guilty of heinous crimes than in making sure they are only punished after getting a fair trial. The reality is that most of those who are found guilty and sentenced to death are in fact guilty.

But the really troubling reality is that a few of those condemned to death aren't guilty, didn't get a fair trial, and don't deserve to die. Another troubling reality is that all too often procedural rules are given greater weight than substantive fairness. Claims of actual innocence, with evidence to back them up, are sometimes blocked because they were not raised in the right court or at the right time. The incompetence of trial counsel, including famously, lawyers who slept through large parts of their clients' death penalty trials, is over overlooked, excused or justified. This is a very disturbing book. It will very surely disturb those who oppose the death penalty. It should disturb those who support it even more.(less)

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Jul 20, 2010 Erin Carey rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I absolutely could not put this book down. The style was engaging, the tales were gripping and I found myself actually caring about (most of) the characters. I appreciate the honesty Dow provides the reader; namely that he used to be a supporter of the death penalty and that he does not judge those who still are. Instead, he provides us with an in-depth analysis of the appellate process and allows us to draw our own conclusion. He lays it all out - that most people are guilty (at one point he ev...more

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Jul 07, 2010 Shawna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: memoir

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 simply w...more

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Mar 30, 2010 Salem rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 Grisham's. I am...more

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Mar 01, 2010 Felicity rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 frankness. Dow arg...more

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Feb 13, 2010 Joan added it · review of another edition

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 against capital punishmen...more 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 against capital punishment. It's about how this work affects someone who does it, how you balance your commitment to someone whose life is, quite literally, in your hands with your commitment to your family. He misses the Hallowe'en visit to a haunted house he promised his son. His family goes on vacation without him. He tries to juggle overwhelming workloads and not enough time and resources, and how that means that his office can't do anything to help a man who believes that Jesus has arranged that he will walk out of Death Row, a mentally ill man who was allowed to represent himself at trial and on appeal.

The "hook" here is the story of Henry Quaker, a man convicted of killing his wife and children, whom Dow is representing. Then he receives a letter from another inmate, telling him that Quaker is innocent, that this man had hired another to kill a woman who had been stealing from him and that he'd killed the wrong person. What happened? Hell, this is Texas. What do you think happened?

There's one thing that bothers me about this book. Dow writes about the death penalty system that "the abolitionists' single-minded focus on innocence makes them seem as indifferent to principle as the vigilantes are." And there is something to that. But it seems to me that by centering this memoir around the execution of a probably innocent man, Dow is doing the same thing. It's as if he felt that writing about representing the guilty would somehow diminish his memoir, and I don't believe it would.

Dow tells the story of a childhood friend of his wife's, a famous artist, who, inebriated, reveals herself to be "racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, narcissistic, and altogether unlikable." Dow says that he realized that his "clients were better people than this piece of garbage, and they even killed somebody." But, you know, I take a different lesson. Katya tells him, "She's been my friend since she was eight years old, which is way before she was a terrible person. What am I supposed to do? Abandon her?" They remain friends for the same reason we ask juries not to kill our clients: we are more than the worst thing we've ever done.

(The names of people in this book have mostly been changed, some circumstances altered, in order to respect the confidences of clients. In an appendix, Meredith Duncan, a professor at the University of Houston Law Center, discusses the duty of confidentiality that lawyers have to their clients. I appreciated this very much, because it's something most people don't understand, particularly when it comes to people like the Cook County public defenders whose client confided in to them that he was responsible for a murder for which another man had been convicted. Counsel kept the secret for years, until the client, who had given them permission to reveal the confidence after his death, died. The lawyers were vilified, but they were right.) (less)

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May 20, 2011 Trish rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-book, non-fiction, learned-something

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 to believe in...more 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 to believe in capital punishment, but now no longer does. He now works exclusively with death row prisoners to get them stays of execution. His reasons for having a change of heart aren’t detailed in this book (although I think they may have been in his previous book “Executed on a Technicality”, that I have not yet read). It seems he is now against the death penalty because it isn’t fairly applied and the criminal justice system is skewed toward executing mainly poor minorities. He hints that he doesn’t think it is morally right either--murder is murder, but later says he is not sure what he would do if someone killed his family.

When I was younger I was adamantly against the death penalty. Now that I am older and have a young son, I am still theoretically against capital punishment; however I know that if someone sexually abused, tortured and killed my son, I could personally administer the lethal injection with no qualms. So I wonder if Dow would still be against the death penalty if the same thing happened to his son, of whom he absolutely adores and fawns over in this book.

Dow shows the absurdity of how the court system works and how it is not driven by justice, but by procedures, protocols, and politics. He also shows how it is easy for everyone within this system (from jury members, to judges, and most especially the Governor, to not take responsibility for executing someone no matter if they are guilty, mentally incompetent or innocent, with the statement of “There wasn’t anything I could do.”

In addition to the too much narrative about his son in this book, his writing was a little too disjointed for me. He was all over the map--back and forth between a past client, to meeting his wife, to the main current case, to his current personal life, back to another current client, a dream, philosophical thoughts etc. He needed a better editor. These issues aside, I did think the book was informative and thought provoking and I would recommend it.
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May 27, 2010 Noah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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. The trouble...more

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May 17, 2010 Mary McCoy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 the fact that...more

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Apr 08, 2013 Susie Kelly rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Damned glad I'm not black and living in Texas.

Some of the passages I underlined in this book:

"I learned how lawless the system is. If you have reservations about supporting a racist, classist, unprincipled regime, a regime where white skin is valued far more highly than dark, where prosecutors hide evidence and policemen routinely lie, where judges decide what justice requires by consulting the most recent Gallup poll, where rich people sometimes get away with murder and never end up on death ro...more Damned glad I'm not black and living in Texas.

Some of the passages I underlined in this book:

"I learned how lawless the system is. If you have reservations about supporting a racist, classist, unprincipled regime, a regime where white skin is valued far more highly than dark, where prosecutors hide evidence and policemen routinely lie, where judges decide what justice requires by consulting the most recent Gallup poll, where rich people sometimes get away with murder and never end up on death row, then the death-penalty system we have here in America will embarrass you no end."

"For all our so-called progress, the tribal vengefulness that we think of as limited to backward African countries is still how our legal system works."

".... the federal court of appeals with jurisidiction over our clients consists mostly of judges who are utterly unprincipled and hostile to the rule of law. They look for ways to uphold death sentences even where constitutional violations are egregious. In recent years, the court upheld a death sentence of a black inmate who was sentenced to death by an all-white jury after prosecutors systematically removed every potential juror of color from serving. It upheld the death sentence of a mentally retarded inmate after his lawyer, who was afflicted by Parkinson's disease, neglected to point out the inmate's IQ score. It upheld the death sentence of an inmate who was probably innocent on the ground that his lawyers had waited too long to identify the proof of innocence. It upheld the death sentence of an inmate whose lawyer had literally slept through the trial. These judges get to be judges not because they are wise, but because they are friends with the US senator, or a friend of a friend. They are smart, however. That means they are very good at hiding their lawlessness inside of recondite-sounding legalese. They look for reasons to ensure a death-row inmate will get executed, and they usually find one. And not very many people care."

I am not against the death penalty per se. There are cases where I believe it is justified. But only in cases where there is absolutely no doubt of the person's guilt, and never because of lazy lawyers, a minor oversight in paperwork, or because the judge needed to leave early to go out to dinner.

A real eye-opener, and very well-written by David Dow. In a nutshell, if you get sent to death-row in Texas, despite almost overwhelming evidence of your innocence, you are going to die. Because they want you to.

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Dec 07, 2012 Em rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Thank goodness someone is willing to be death row attorney. David Dow paints a powerful picture of the injustices of the system and the powerlessness of those trapped within it- including their attorneys. As you can imagine, this work takes a toll and Dow doesn't shy away from describing the delicate balance between relying upon his family to survive the work, while at the same time wanting to protect them from the darkness he is exposed to. My conviction that the death penalty must end was only...more

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Jun 30, 2012 Cristina rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, gifts-from-juan

Not what I was expecting -- but pretty great nonetheless. This book is not just a straight-forward, non-fiction, explanatory work about the death penalty. It is the recanting of one death penalty lawyer's experience fighting for death row prisoners. It includes many personal details, including memories and dreams, to show how this work affects him and his family in a huge way.
Due to attorney-client privilege, which exists even after death, Dow tells the reader that prisoners, lawyers, and judges...more

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Jul 08, 2010 Anna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 change names and...more

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Apr 21, 2011 Jerry Smith rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: current-affairs, general-interest, crime, 2011-read

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

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Jul 23, 2012 Victor rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012-reads

First, I want to add that I read this book for my Business Law class.

From its opening account to the series of intermingled tales, this book presents an intimate account of a lawyer trying to find balance between the many facets of his life. Dow’s account is very personal, both of his personal and professional life. He comes on times as disinterested for his clients. He says he does not like them, but does not want them to be executed either. He shows his dread for his profession when he says th...more First, I want to add that I read this book for my Business Law class.

From its opening account to the series of intermingled tales, this book presents an intimate account of a lawyer trying to find balance between the many facets of his life. Dow’s account is very personal, both of his personal and professional life. He comes on times as disinterested for his clients. He says he does not like them, but does not want them to be executed either. He shows his dread for his profession when he says that from the hundreds of cases he has taken, he believes only seven were innocent.

One of these cases is the matter of “Henry Quaker”. Accused of murdering his wife and children, Quaker had an inept defense and was sentenced to death. The main thread of the account is following efforts by Dow and his team to stay his execution and probe he is innocent. This account constitutes the majority of the narrative, and it becomes clear that this is the autobiography the title allures to. Dow believes his client is guilty, but in a surge of hope, begins on a personal quest to help his client. Intertwined are many passages of other cases Dow leads at the same time, one in particular that has relevance to the Quaker case in which the reader spends a significant amount of time.

Dow presents himself in a very human; he is concerned he is not there for the many events in the life of his six year old son Lincoln; he likes jazz music, especially Art Tatum and loves his cigars, even if he claims he does not smoke as much anymore. He indicates that because he is not in favor of death penalty, he is a forgiving person. He clearly indicates many times that he does not want to care for his clients, and does not like many of them, but he still does in the end and in many instances, he will keep the fight going until it becomes impossible to carry on.

The most important aspect of the book, and the author’s intent, is a harsh critique to the death penalty system in Texas, and generally in the United States. Perhaps his more passionate statement comes after the execution of a mentally challenged client, in which Dow objects that the judicial system in the United States is build to avoid individual responsibility, as jurors are individual parts of a whole and a judge is enforcing the decisions of a jury, therefore all responsibility is evaded. Dow is very harsh on the Board of Pardons and Paroles and the governor, describing them as uninterested, living in a fantasy that defendants received fair trials.

Dow does not come as conflictive, although he preaches with passion, and his own experiences justifies him. He claims he used to support dead penalty, and he finds himself surrounded by the inevitability of dead, yet he still tries to save his clients, even if he claims not to be doing so.
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Jan 14, 2012 Emily Edelman rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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/2011/04/08/1351744...

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 idea he had. T...more

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Mar 22, 2011 Miranda rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 he...more

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