Death in the Dark: Midnight Executions in America

by John D. Bessler

Executions in the United States are hidden from public view. Laws severely restrict the number of witnesses and journalists, and television cameras are forbidden in prison execution chambers. Capital punishment is cloaked in added secrecy because executions are often performed in the middle of the night. This provocative book provides a comprehensive history of executions in the United States from colonial days to the present. Framing his analysis within the context of the politics of capital punishment and the role of the media in the death penalty debate, John Bessler begins by examining the transition from crowded public hangings in town squares to private executions behind prison walls. He then explores the origins and legislative rationales that led to statutory provisions mandating private, nighttime executions. Against this historical background, Bessler reviews changing public opinions concerning capital punishment, analyzes recent court decisions, and considers how politicians manipulate the death penalty as a get-tough-on-crime measure. Concluding with a penetrating discussion of recent attempts to televise executions, he addresses the constitutionality of barring cameras and illuminates both sides of the debate over public access to executions. Bessler convincingly argues that private execution laws shield Americans from the reality of the death penalty and prohibit them from making informed judgments about the morality of capital punishment.

319 pages, Paperback

Published April 2, 1998

Reviews

[Pixismiler · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75 stars. Nothing wrong with the book but I don’t rate history books very highly. The book is copyrighted 1997 so by now in 2024 it is very outdated. Some of the info has changed. Some of it is still the same. It is important to know about the history of executions in order for us to move forward.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Clinton had overseen executions as Arkansas's governor and even flew back to Arkansas during the crucial New Hampshire primary to preside over the execution of death row inmate Rickey Ray Rector. A forty-year-old black man, Rector had killed a white police officer, then shot himself in the head, inflicting severe brain damage. ... After Rector's execution, guards on death row found the slice of pecan pie from Rector's final meal untouched on a saucer in his cell. While incarcerated, Rector always saved his dessert until bedtime. His lawyers said that Rector left the pie because he believed he would return to his cell and did not know he was about to die."

Bessler's research is impeccable. I had no idea that most modern executions happened so late at night -- yet another way that we're all shielded from the horrible realities of the death penalty.

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

I took a seminar class on the death penalty with Professor Bessler, and he gave us his book. I really appreciated that he didn't force us to read his book as part of his class, but just gave it to us in case we'd be interested. This was possibly the only time in my seven years of higher education that a professor did not use the fact that he was teaching a class to force people to buy his or her book, and you kind of have to respect that.

I also found the thesis of his book to be interesting and something I was surprised I'd never thought about before: the fact that executions used to be entirely public (hangings in the town square) and have become totally private (in prison, at midnight, with like three people watching). While I was ultimately persuaded that executions should be more public than they are, to provide more accountability and provide for informed public opinion, I couldn't get on-board with his ultimate conclusion that they be televised. It just seems so distasteful to me, especially after reading the depictions of the public hangings described in the book, and also, in the case of serial killers, gives them the deranged publicity they've wanted which is offensive to victims in my opinion. Another interesting point of the book, though, is that some death penalty abolitionists supported privatizing executions because they thought it would lead to abolishing the death penalty altogether because it would take away the deterrence argument used by pro-death penalty parties...which is a point that totally makes sense and yet absolutely never happened.

Overall, though, I found the book didn't keep my interest as much as I thought it would, and it definitely got repetitive at points. Also it was written in the 90s, and I like for my nonfiction to be as current as possible so it was hard for me to get interested knowing that the book wouldn't end with the most current state of affairs. Obviously I knew this going in though and perhaps if I had read this six years ago when it was given to me, it might have been less of a problem.