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A Saint on Death Row: The Story of Dominique Green
On October 26, 2004, Dominique Green, thirty, was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas. Arrested at the age of eighteen in the fatal shooting of a man during a robbery outside a Houston convenience store, Green may have taken part in the robbery but always insisted that he did not pull the trigger. The jury, which had no African Americans on it, sentenced him to death. Despite obvious errors in the legal procedures and the protests of the victim’s family, he spent the last twelve years of his life on Death Row.
When Cahill found himself in Texas in December 2003, he visited Dominique at the request of Judge Sheila Murphy, who was working on the appeal of the case. In Dominique, he encountered a level of goodness, peace, and enlightenment that few human beings ever attain. Cahill joined the fierce fight for Dominique’s life, even enlisting Dominique’s hero, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, to make an historic visit to Dominique and to plead publicly for mercy. Cahill was so profoundly moved by Dominique’s extraordinary life that he was compelled to tell the tragic story of his unjust death at the hands of the state.
A Saint on Death Row will introduce you to a young man whose history, innate goodness, and final days you will never forget. It also shines a necessary light on America’s racist and deeply flawed legal system. A Saint on Death Row is an absorbing, sobering, and deeply spiritual story that illuminates the moral imperatives too often ignored in the headlong quest for justice.
When Cahill found himself in Texas in December 2003, he visited Dominique at the request of Judge Sheila Murphy, who was working on the appeal of the case. In Dominique, he encountered a level of goodness, peace, and enlightenment that few human beings ever attain. Cahill joined the fierce fight for Dominique’s life, even enlisting Dominique’s hero, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, to make an historic visit to Dominique and to plead publicly for mercy. Cahill was so profoundly moved by Dominique’s extraordinary life that he was compelled to tell the tragic story of his unjust death at the hands of the state.
A Saint on Death Row will introduce you to a young man whose history, innate goodness, and final days you will never forget. It also shines a necessary light on America’s racist and deeply flawed legal system. A Saint on Death Row is an absorbing, sobering, and deeply spiritual story that illuminates the moral imperatives too often ignored in the headlong quest for justice.
160 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
About the author
Thomas Cahill
38 books588 followersBorn in New York City to Irish-American parents and raised in Queens and the Bronx, Cahill was educated by Jesuits and studied ancient Greek and Latin. He continued his study of Greek and Latin literature, as well as medieval philosophy, scripture and theology, at Fordham University, where he completed a B.A. in classical literature and philosophy in 1964, and a pontifical degree in philosophy in 1965. He went on to complete his M.F.A. in film and dramatic literature at Columbia University in 1968.
In anticipation of writing The Gifts of the Jews, Cahill studied scripture at Union Theological Seminary in New York, and spent two years as a Visiting Scholar at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, where he studied Hebrew and the Hebrew Bible. He also reads French and Italian. In 1999, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Alfred University in New York.
Cahill has taught at Queens College, Fordham University, and Seton Hall University, served as the North American education correspondent for The Times of London, and was for many years a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times Book Review. Prior to retiring to write full time, he was the Director of Religious Publishing at Doubleday for six years. He and his wife, Susan, also an author, divide their time between New York and Rome.
—Wikipedia
In anticipation of writing The Gifts of the Jews, Cahill studied scripture at Union Theological Seminary in New York, and spent two years as a Visiting Scholar at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, where he studied Hebrew and the Hebrew Bible. He also reads French and Italian. In 1999, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Alfred University in New York.
Cahill has taught at Queens College, Fordham University, and Seton Hall University, served as the North American education correspondent for The Times of London, and was for many years a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times Book Review. Prior to retiring to write full time, he was the Director of Religious Publishing at Doubleday for six years. He and his wife, Susan, also an author, divide their time between New York and Rome.
—Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 79 reviews
June 9, 2013
Dominique Green was on Death Row in Texas until his execution in 2004. (This book was published in 2009.) During his time there he taught himself and learned the skills of life that no one had ever taught him. He had to decide the purpose of his life when his execution seemed to be a certainty. The evident turn around in his life has been obvious to people who had contact with him. If rehabilitation is the goal, he was a success story by most accounts. Green said:
In military training recruits are taught to dehumanize the enemy to make it more easily possible to kill. Some might think of a person (over 98% of the time it's a man) on death row as inhuman, a monster, not worthy of life. The debate about the justification for the death penalty is often an emotional one.
One of the goals of most books opposing the death penalty is to humanize the people on death row. That is a primary goal of this book in addition to showing the absence of justice in this particular case. This book takes place in Texas, the state that executes far more people than any other state.
The title of the book including “Saint” suggests a religious bent. I read the book in spite of that because of my long interest in abolishing the death penalty. There is some religious language and references. So, while religion did play a role in the book, it did not seem overblown to me. Clearly religion plays a significant role for some people in dealing with the death penalty and other social issues.
A Saint on Death Row is very focused on the possibility of Dominique Green’s innocence. In one of the more well known anti-death penalty books Dead Man Walking maintains some distance from the issue of guilt or innocence. The position there is that the death penalty is wrong even if the person is guilty.
In recent years there has been an increasing emphasis on mistaken convictions. As more and more erroneous convictions (including those on death row) have become known, a strong argument is made that the death penalty should be eliminated because it cannot be reversed if innocence is determined after the execution. Some cases where that critical mistake may have been made have been discovered and publicized. DNA evidence is playing a role in conviction reversals. In the book after the execution author Tom Cahill has several pages where he gives consideration to the innocence or guilt of Green and makes no firm determination.
I am glad that I read this book as I continue to seek out books about the death penalty. I am “the choir” as in “preaching to the choir” in this instance. Like lots of people, I like things that reinforce what I think. We are recalcitrant about changing our opinions. But somehow we do change collectively and that seems to be what is happening with the death penalty as abolishment is picking up support and state legislatures are acting.
I wasn’t energized by this book and I wonder how much pro or con books like this actually affect public opinion. I was happy to see the various resources listed at the end of the book so people can be better informed and maybe support an anti-death penalty organization. The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty NCADP at http://ncadp.org/ is a good one that works nationally and supports the many local and state abolition organizations. And I think Dead Man Walking is still one of the best books on the subject.
A Saint on Death Row is a three star book for me. I have read enough death penalty books to think this one could have been much better. It didn’t get me pumped up. Maybe part of that was the religious aspect of the book. Glad I read it. It didn’t take much time. I hope it catches the interest of the more religiously inclined. But judging from the relatively small number of ratings it doesn’t seem to have caught on with GR readers.
I didn’t know, after being condemned, if I should prove to the jury that sentenced me to die that I was not a monster. . . I never had anyone in my life to teach me how to be me. That was something I had to take the time to discover on my own, and it was one hell of an experience.
In military training recruits are taught to dehumanize the enemy to make it more easily possible to kill. Some might think of a person (over 98% of the time it's a man) on death row as inhuman, a monster, not worthy of life. The debate about the justification for the death penalty is often an emotional one.
One of the goals of most books opposing the death penalty is to humanize the people on death row. That is a primary goal of this book in addition to showing the absence of justice in this particular case. This book takes place in Texas, the state that executes far more people than any other state.
The title of the book including “Saint” suggests a religious bent. I read the book in spite of that because of my long interest in abolishing the death penalty. There is some religious language and references. So, while religion did play a role in the book, it did not seem overblown to me. Clearly religion plays a significant role for some people in dealing with the death penalty and other social issues.
A Saint on Death Row is very focused on the possibility of Dominique Green’s innocence. In one of the more well known anti-death penalty books Dead Man Walking maintains some distance from the issue of guilt or innocence. The position there is that the death penalty is wrong even if the person is guilty.
In recent years there has been an increasing emphasis on mistaken convictions. As more and more erroneous convictions (including those on death row) have become known, a strong argument is made that the death penalty should be eliminated because it cannot be reversed if innocence is determined after the execution. Some cases where that critical mistake may have been made have been discovered and publicized. DNA evidence is playing a role in conviction reversals. In the book after the execution author Tom Cahill has several pages where he gives consideration to the innocence or guilt of Green and makes no firm determination.
I am glad that I read this book as I continue to seek out books about the death penalty. I am “the choir” as in “preaching to the choir” in this instance. Like lots of people, I like things that reinforce what I think. We are recalcitrant about changing our opinions. But somehow we do change collectively and that seems to be what is happening with the death penalty as abolishment is picking up support and state legislatures are acting.
I wasn’t energized by this book and I wonder how much pro or con books like this actually affect public opinion. I was happy to see the various resources listed at the end of the book so people can be better informed and maybe support an anti-death penalty organization. The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty NCADP at http://ncadp.org/ is a good one that works nationally and supports the many local and state abolition organizations. And I think Dead Man Walking is still one of the best books on the subject.
A Saint on Death Row is a three star book for me. I have read enough death penalty books to think this one could have been much better. It didn’t get me pumped up. Maybe part of that was the religious aspect of the book. Glad I read it. It didn’t take much time. I hope it catches the interest of the more religiously inclined. But judging from the relatively small number of ratings it doesn’t seem to have caught on with GR readers.
November 29, 2009
This is a curiously tepid account of a compelling story. From my own experience representing a death row inmate in "post conviction" proceedings, I need no convincing of the futility, and ultimately, the barbarity and inhumanity of the death penalty. I need no convincing of the racism inherent in the death penalty as applied. I need no convincing of the inherent unfairness of "the system" in many parts of Texas -- from the appointment of inexperienced or incompetent counsel to defend capital cases, to egregious prosecutorial misconduct to the substantive and procedural shenanigans condoned by (and sometimes engaged in by) all too many trial and appellate courts.
I felt no passion from Cahill -- though I'm sure he feels it. He never really lets us know Dominique Green intimately or learn why Cahill comes to love him and care about him so. Green is sketched out, almost in outline, but never really fleshed out.
I found Cahill's discussion of the legal issues equally sketchy. I know Cahill is no lawyer, but his descriptions of the legal processes and issues are embarrassingly amateurish.
Indeed, there is an amateurish quality about the whole book . No doubt Cahill was affected deeply by his experience with Dominque Green and his encounter with the brutal evil that is America's capital punishment scheme. As I well know from personal experience, no one can come into contact with this system and come away unaffected. But one doubts that Cahill's story -- at least as he tells it -- would have been deemed worthy of publication by Doubleday if he had been just one more citizen writing about his experiences as opposed to an already famous author.
I felt no passion from Cahill -- though I'm sure he feels it. He never really lets us know Dominique Green intimately or learn why Cahill comes to love him and care about him so. Green is sketched out, almost in outline, but never really fleshed out.
I found Cahill's discussion of the legal issues equally sketchy. I know Cahill is no lawyer, but his descriptions of the legal processes and issues are embarrassingly amateurish.
Indeed, there is an amateurish quality about the whole book . No doubt Cahill was affected deeply by his experience with Dominque Green and his encounter with the brutal evil that is America's capital punishment scheme. As I well know from personal experience, no one can come into contact with this system and come away unaffected. But one doubts that Cahill's story -- at least as he tells it -- would have been deemed worthy of publication by Doubleday if he had been just one more citizen writing about his experiences as opposed to an already famous author.
June 26, 2012
I saw Cahill give a speech on this book and one of the most important things I took from it was how he was still affected by Green's death - he broke down visibly at times during his speech - and his thoughts regarding how irrelevant it is if Green was actually guilty or not. As Cahill said in the book, he believes Green wasn't the shooter but is not certain whether he was there or not, involved or not, and if so how much. These facts for Cahill are not important as he felt Green was not the same person he was when those things had occurred, and the supposed purpose of jailing people is to keep society safe by separating supposedly dangerous elements until they are rehabilitated enough to be returned to the general population. Green was, according to Cahill, not a threat at all and a person who would have been a productive member of society. The big questions posed by this book are why go to the expense and effort to kill such a person, and was it fair to kill him while the two other African American defendants who testified against him received jail sentences and the white defendant received nothing?
Cahill analyzes these questions by looking at Green's upbringing, reviewing if he was given due process through the US legal system, reviewing the evidence against him, the legal defense afforded him, the inherent injustice and purposelessness of the death penalty, and senselessness of following through and killing a person who by all accounts was rehabilitated.
This book was moving and brought to light many of the injustices regarding the plight of minorities and the poor in the US criminal justice system, the cost of putting criminals to death versus rehabilitation or life imprisonment, the purpose and supposed results of a system committed to killing people for punishment, and the problem of convicting people and seeing sentences carried out regardless of evidence. These issues are further exacerbated by the rise of for-profit privately run prisons which lack federal oversight and often result in prisoner sexual and physical abuse, and the social damage this causes our society.
A good though sometimes painful read for anyone interested in social justice, our criminal justice system, the death penalty or the effects of incarceration on people.
Cahill analyzes these questions by looking at Green's upbringing, reviewing if he was given due process through the US legal system, reviewing the evidence against him, the legal defense afforded him, the inherent injustice and purposelessness of the death penalty, and senselessness of following through and killing a person who by all accounts was rehabilitated.
This book was moving and brought to light many of the injustices regarding the plight of minorities and the poor in the US criminal justice system, the cost of putting criminals to death versus rehabilitation or life imprisonment, the purpose and supposed results of a system committed to killing people for punishment, and the problem of convicting people and seeing sentences carried out regardless of evidence. These issues are further exacerbated by the rise of for-profit privately run prisons which lack federal oversight and often result in prisoner sexual and physical abuse, and the social damage this causes our society.
A good though sometimes painful read for anyone interested in social justice, our criminal justice system, the death penalty or the effects of incarceration on people.
February 16, 2019
Executing innocent persons is a bad idea.
July 6, 2020
While it’s really powerful, moving, and thought provoking about the place of the death penalty in our society (which honestly made me rethink my position on it), the conclusion, that these injustices stem from the Southern Baptists and Calvinists, is extremely far fetched.
January 14, 2014
Wow: what happened to Dominique Green was both a tragedy and a true miscarriage of justice. (And yet, sadly, his case is representative rather than unique.) Thomas Cahill's book detailing his sad life and eventual death is both compelling and heartbreaking, so gripping in fact that I stayed up all night and read it in a single sitting.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a huge fan of Mr. Cahill's prose or, at times, the way he chooses to frame and/or recount some situations, but his storytelling is top notch. But he is masterful at painting the full picture of the phenomenon of Dominique Green's life, conviction, incarceration and execution. And it's clear that his work is heartfelt, a true labor of love and respect for someone to whom, as he acknowledges, he wouldn't expect to have become close in his life.
Given the book's title, I don't think I'm spoiling anything by sharing the reality that Mr. Green was eventually executed after an arrest, trial and conviction that were palpably unfair. And the author gains great credibility by sharing that the physically, sexually and emotionally abused Dominic (his given name) who committed the crimes was not the 'saint' that the man Dominique (his chosen and preferred name) became, though given what he experienced, it would have been perfectly understandable for him to take a lesser/lower path later in life, too. But what this young man experienced - from his trial with apparently incompetent and possibly complicit attorneys to the inhumanity of his incarceration to the purposely dehumanizing approach that the Texas legal and prison systems take to those convicted - is an indictment of us all and is grippingly conveyed in Mr. Cahill's telling. The twin evils of class and race intertwine in certain places within this self-perceived great country - like Harris County, Texas - in effect, to doom the arrested whether or not they are guilty. In Dominique's case, his trial was a veritable kangaroo court presided over by a judge whose assignment of inexperienced (and, realistically, incompetent) attorneys to Mr. Green reveals his previously publicly affirmed contempt for poor defendants. His trial attorneys - neither of whom had served previously as lead counsel in a capital case - not only represented him weakly and poorly - and perhaps colluded with the prosecution - but actually put witnesses on the stand, including the protagonist's mentally ill mother and an expert witness who harbored racial bias against Latinos and Blacks - no, you can't make that up - who doomed the person whom they were supposed to be supporting. And when you consider that there were four suspects originally arrested and that only the three black ones were ever prosecuted (with Dominique being the only one charged with murder due to plea deals struck with the other two black defendants), the racial angle of the case becomes even more damning. (That's right, the sole white accomplice - who admitted to sharing in the take from the robberies that led up to the fatal incident - was mysteriously never prosecuted.) Years of apparently ineffective appellate representation followed and, as the author concludes, wistfully, Mr. Green's fate was sealed.
And yet there is much here that evidences the triumph of the human spirit, including Dominique's development into "a fully achieved human being," as the author describes him, and the incredible cadre of earnest, loving and proactive people who eventually rally around Mr. Green (though, it turns out, too late to change his fate). And the story of Dominique's Rosary haunts me even now....
It is a tribute to the author and evidence of a story well-told that amidst the plethora of dismaying behavior and developments in this case, what remains thereafter is the good that came from an otherwise awful display of inhumanity and tragedy. Yes, what a much better world it would be had Mr. Green lived ... but among the lessons of his life is that the world is better right now than we perceive it to be and that by our own proactivity we can evoke the better angels within ourselves and others (despite our human condition at any given moment) [a la Viktor Frankl].
So I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in understanding that although some battles are lost, there are those among us who will ultimately lead us to win the war against the lesser side of human nature. And I recommend it to those interested in social justice, sociology/social anthropology, psychology and/or any of the social sciences. Or to anyone who simply wants to be reminded of the challenges to which we should feel called as well as of the grace that is ever-present among us. I am so saddened by what I read. And yet I am so indescribably grateful for having been so moved by this compelling portrait, an insight into who we are as a society as seen through the experiences of one ever-evolving young man whose life inspires and elevates still....
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a huge fan of Mr. Cahill's prose or, at times, the way he chooses to frame and/or recount some situations, but his storytelling is top notch. But he is masterful at painting the full picture of the phenomenon of Dominique Green's life, conviction, incarceration and execution. And it's clear that his work is heartfelt, a true labor of love and respect for someone to whom, as he acknowledges, he wouldn't expect to have become close in his life.
Given the book's title, I don't think I'm spoiling anything by sharing the reality that Mr. Green was eventually executed after an arrest, trial and conviction that were palpably unfair. And the author gains great credibility by sharing that the physically, sexually and emotionally abused Dominic (his given name) who committed the crimes was not the 'saint' that the man Dominique (his chosen and preferred name) became, though given what he experienced, it would have been perfectly understandable for him to take a lesser/lower path later in life, too. But what this young man experienced - from his trial with apparently incompetent and possibly complicit attorneys to the inhumanity of his incarceration to the purposely dehumanizing approach that the Texas legal and prison systems take to those convicted - is an indictment of us all and is grippingly conveyed in Mr. Cahill's telling. The twin evils of class and race intertwine in certain places within this self-perceived great country - like Harris County, Texas - in effect, to doom the arrested whether or not they are guilty. In Dominique's case, his trial was a veritable kangaroo court presided over by a judge whose assignment of inexperienced (and, realistically, incompetent) attorneys to Mr. Green reveals his previously publicly affirmed contempt for poor defendants. His trial attorneys - neither of whom had served previously as lead counsel in a capital case - not only represented him weakly and poorly - and perhaps colluded with the prosecution - but actually put witnesses on the stand, including the protagonist's mentally ill mother and an expert witness who harbored racial bias against Latinos and Blacks - no, you can't make that up - who doomed the person whom they were supposed to be supporting. And when you consider that there were four suspects originally arrested and that only the three black ones were ever prosecuted (with Dominique being the only one charged with murder due to plea deals struck with the other two black defendants), the racial angle of the case becomes even more damning. (That's right, the sole white accomplice - who admitted to sharing in the take from the robberies that led up to the fatal incident - was mysteriously never prosecuted.) Years of apparently ineffective appellate representation followed and, as the author concludes, wistfully, Mr. Green's fate was sealed.
And yet there is much here that evidences the triumph of the human spirit, including Dominique's development into "a fully achieved human being," as the author describes him, and the incredible cadre of earnest, loving and proactive people who eventually rally around Mr. Green (though, it turns out, too late to change his fate). And the story of Dominique's Rosary haunts me even now....
It is a tribute to the author and evidence of a story well-told that amidst the plethora of dismaying behavior and developments in this case, what remains thereafter is the good that came from an otherwise awful display of inhumanity and tragedy. Yes, what a much better world it would be had Mr. Green lived ... but among the lessons of his life is that the world is better right now than we perceive it to be and that by our own proactivity we can evoke the better angels within ourselves and others (despite our human condition at any given moment) [a la Viktor Frankl].
So I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in understanding that although some battles are lost, there are those among us who will ultimately lead us to win the war against the lesser side of human nature. And I recommend it to those interested in social justice, sociology/social anthropology, psychology and/or any of the social sciences. Or to anyone who simply wants to be reminded of the challenges to which we should feel called as well as of the grace that is ever-present among us. I am so saddened by what I read. And yet I am so indescribably grateful for having been so moved by this compelling portrait, an insight into who we are as a society as seen through the experiences of one ever-evolving young man whose life inspires and elevates still....
August 8, 2025
This true history has me sitting silenced in a cloud of desperate helpless frustration. Bishop Desmond Tutu visited Dominique Green and affirmed grace .. Texas Death Row with between 200-300 persons was touched by God's love without biblical quotes or preaching -- by a short life channeling the essence of Christ .. and still, like Christ Himself, was killed. By the self righteous ... Peels back more of the acceptable outward costuming covering evil.
January 27, 2011
One thing I learned is don't mess with Texas. This was a compelling story. Having just read The Green Mile, although fiction; it makes me wonder how many innocent men and women die on death row. My heart really goes out for this young man who was dealt a really bad hand in life. Growing up on the streets of Houston he chose dealing drugs as an alternative to other criminal activities. He had a horrible childhood with a crazy mother who abused him (even shot at him on several occasions) and an indifferent father. He was surrounded by drugs, prostitution, and constant abuse. The legal system failed him miserably because of his race and the poverty he lived in. When Thomas Cahill visited him in 2004 he was astounded by the grace and peace that this young man exuded. Cahill chronicles Dominique's unjust and racial experience. He left the world at peace and loved by many people who tried many times to get him a stay of execution to no avail. Even the family of the man murdered were there at the end to protest his innocence. He gained a family in prison that he had never experienced in his life on the streets of Houston. Very moving story.
August 16, 2017
Although I don't like the death penalty (though I will admit that there are some people I have no problem ending their life for egregious, well-documented offenses), and am fully aware of the unfair bias in the American judicial system that is weighed heavily against the poor, especially minority, accused; and that it should be as hard as possible for the state to take a life, providing sufficient time for the convicted to appeal and introduce newly discovered evidence; and that humans being humans, and the system rewarding victory over truth, as well as the startling numbers of convicts exonerated through new methods (DNA) that revealed the crimes they paid for were not committed by them, and also that some lawyers are poorly trained, overburdened, and frequently underpaid, especially in death penalty instances---I still feel some pause when I read these types of books. I guess my bias comes a bit from having served as a guard for a short while, and realizing that some inmates are charismatic, manipulative, and almost all dishonest, so I almost never buy the whole story of innocence and automatically that the system did them wrong. Yet here is a story that certainly, convincingly, makes the reader acknowledge that even if Green were guilty of being part of the crime spree that lead to the death of one victim (and of course, that he possibly pulled the trigger), he nonetheless was not well represented by his lawyers or the system; should never have been given the death penalty, while there was as much doubt about the circumstances as well as doubtful testimony from his coconspirators, and the rather blatant fact that the only white member of the gang basically walked away scott free. Many readers should be outraged that the judicial system is so patently unfair (largely cause they feel they will never be part of it), and in the case of Texas, clearly homicidal itself. I cringe when I think of prosecutors hiding evidence; or court-accepted specialists who do not do their job, while lives are at stake; or when poor lawyers are allowed to continue practicing; or while appellate judges do not truly do their job fairly. While I do not agree with everything some groups stand for, others win my admiration, such as the Community of Sant’Egidio. Green may have become a vastly improved man, and obviously impressed a lot of people, and it seems that some sort of clemency should have been extended to him.
February 9, 2018
The true story of Dominique Green, an African American man who as a teen was involved (the story never really conclusively explains how) in a crime that led to a death. The book mainly focuses on the attempts made by Green and others to get him off death row, with the whole thing being rather exacerbated by the fact that Green will never "come clean" about just exactly what happened that night because that would mean snitching on the real guilty party.
I think anyone with heart would have theirs go out to Green. He's 17 when the crime is committed, a kid. Plus, he has had a very difficult childhood which the author goes into when it comes to the sexual abuse Green suffered. The book does have a pretty good amount of blaming everyone else whether it be crummy lawyers or the state of Texas' entire judicial system. As someone who is anti-death penalty, I find the whole thing rather hypocritical, its difficult to hear the tale of what (as the author maintains) is the death of a innocent man.
Fans of Dead Man Walking will no doubt enjoy this as well, I did enjoy it, but there was a lot of questions that were never answered and a lot of injustices that were just chaulked up to racism and then allowed to go by.
I think anyone with heart would have theirs go out to Green. He's 17 when the crime is committed, a kid. Plus, he has had a very difficult childhood which the author goes into when it comes to the sexual abuse Green suffered. The book does have a pretty good amount of blaming everyone else whether it be crummy lawyers or the state of Texas' entire judicial system. As someone who is anti-death penalty, I find the whole thing rather hypocritical, its difficult to hear the tale of what (as the author maintains) is the death of a innocent man.
Fans of Dead Man Walking will no doubt enjoy this as well, I did enjoy it, but there was a lot of questions that were never answered and a lot of injustices that were just chaulked up to racism and then allowed to go by.
April 15, 2019
This CD recitation of Dominique Green's story by the author of this book is a mere three-and-one-half hours. However, the author is emphatic about his belief in Dominique Gree, who was tried for murder in Texas.
It is a scathing expose' of lawyer incompetence and the Texas justice system, in general. On October 26, 2004, Dominique Green, aged thirty, was executed in Huntsville, Texas.
The author, Thomas Cahill, one of my favorite authors, takes a different turn with this book. Cahill was in Texas in 2003 and he visited Dominique, at the request of Judge Sheila Murphy, who was working on an appeal for Dominique. Cahill joined the fight. After Green was executed, Cahill felt compelled to tell Dominique's unique story.
One of the most interesting of the story was mention of San'Egidio, a religious community in Italy, that became part of Dominique's story. I'd never heard of this group before; they are truly god-like in their actions towards others. I wish knew more about them, they are clearly an interesting world-wide group.
Thomas Cahill read his book and he is full of rage about the injustice he sees in this case.
It is a scathing expose' of lawyer incompetence and the Texas justice system, in general. On October 26, 2004, Dominique Green, aged thirty, was executed in Huntsville, Texas.
The author, Thomas Cahill, one of my favorite authors, takes a different turn with this book. Cahill was in Texas in 2003 and he visited Dominique, at the request of Judge Sheila Murphy, who was working on an appeal for Dominique. Cahill joined the fight. After Green was executed, Cahill felt compelled to tell Dominique's unique story.
One of the most interesting of the story was mention of San'Egidio, a religious community in Italy, that became part of Dominique's story. I'd never heard of this group before; they are truly god-like in their actions towards others. I wish knew more about them, they are clearly an interesting world-wide group.
Thomas Cahill read his book and he is full of rage about the injustice he sees in this case.
November 24, 2021
This brief book presents the reader with the humanity and voice of death row inmate Dominique Green. It succeeds in making the reader aware of the basics of Green's case, the questionable circumstances of its litigation, and how difficult it is for uneducated and unprivileged people to navigate the justice system (especially in Texas). Cahill offers a surface level characterization of Green's personality and transformation from a street-wise teen to a self-educated man who is wise beyond his years. Where he falls short is that Green's virtues are often asserted, but rarely illustrated. Cahill also fails to discuss his friendship with Green in any detail, but instead speaks about others relationships with him therefore lessening the overall emotional impact he desires to convey. Finally, though the title refers to Green as a saint, there is little discussion of Green's personal faith other than his rosary and his fondness for the writing of Desmond Tutu. I am still glad I read this short volume, but it would have been much better if it was a bit longer and illustrated what Green did all of those years on death row and how he impacted so many day to day. I suppose Cahill may have had limited access to firsthand accounts from other death row inmates.
November 15, 2022
Second biography of a black American on death row I’ve read. The evidence presented in both trials appears weak: one man was released after20 years, Dominique was not so lucky.
Graphic description of the execution chamber in Texas contrasts with moving letters written by and to Dominique. Unbelievably his mother gave evidence that she thought him capable of murder and the court did not hear a word about her mental state and institutional visits.
Seems appalling that the main witnesses were 3 accomplices. Dominique was adamant that the video from the nearby shop would clear him. This was either not retrieved or submitted to the jury. Worse is that the 2 black men were sentenced to prison and the white man (seemingly with enough money to pay a decent attorney) walked scot free.
Graphic description of the execution chamber in Texas contrasts with moving letters written by and to Dominique. Unbelievably his mother gave evidence that she thought him capable of murder and the court did not hear a word about her mental state and institutional visits.
Seems appalling that the main witnesses were 3 accomplices. Dominique was adamant that the video from the nearby shop would clear him. This was either not retrieved or submitted to the jury. Worse is that the 2 black men were sentenced to prison and the white man (seemingly with enough money to pay a decent attorney) walked scot free.
August 4, 2018
A good book, but some parts of the book were unnecessary and long, wasn't sure if i was still listening to the same book.
anyhoo, when it comes to a black man in america, a poor black man, there is no justice. we see the one white criminal was given an out and not even charged.
if one can't afford legal counsel, then as it was written in the book, the public defender appears to work with the prosecutor and not for their client. no one gives a darn about the person of color. they just want to charge someone and don't care if they have the right person or not. any black man will do.
now did he do it. i don't know, maybe, but the question should be: did he get a fair trial and the answer is HECK NO! he said he didn't do it but knows who did, then he should have spoken up. i won't sit on death row for anyone. he still deserved better legal representation.
anyhoo, when it comes to a black man in america, a poor black man, there is no justice. we see the one white criminal was given an out and not even charged.
if one can't afford legal counsel, then as it was written in the book, the public defender appears to work with the prosecutor and not for their client. no one gives a darn about the person of color. they just want to charge someone and don't care if they have the right person or not. any black man will do.
now did he do it. i don't know, maybe, but the question should be: did he get a fair trial and the answer is HECK NO! he said he didn't do it but knows who did, then he should have spoken up. i won't sit on death row for anyone. he still deserved better legal representation.
May 27, 2021
Very moving story that provides a stark example of why we need to abolish the death penalty. The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars is that there were some parts that were repetitive (how often in a short book do we need to hear the process to talk to a prisoner with telephones through glass?) and some of it was overly religious. The impact of religion on the story is important but some of the commentary was unnecessary because the story is already so powerful. RIP Dominique.
PS have tissues ready.
PS have tissues ready.
August 7, 2018
A powerful bleak hope-filled book. A sad testament to how low and mean some Texas people stopped to avoid listening to a poor black man. It's equally inspiring and puzzling to me how some people have the strength and forgiveness to rise above incredible persecution. Texas did not beat Dominique Green.
December 7, 2018
In my personal opinion on the book "A Saint On Death Row" I rate it a four out of five because it taught me even if you are around or involved in a negative situation it can cost serious consequences, even if you didn't do anything or not.
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October 14, 2022Insane. Dominique Green’s story deserves to be heard. So many obstacles against him and he still kept his composure. It’s something we all wish and hope we would be able to do and likely will never be put in the position to prove. Another example of how prejudice and injustice work hand in hand.
August 16, 2019
well written and warm personalization of one of the murders committed by the state in our name.
September 20, 2019
love this book
April 23, 2020
an easy book to read, except for the subject matter. Sad story. RIP
January 31, 2021
Absolutely tragic. An absolute tragedy.
January 26, 2022
[audiobook]
February 28, 2023
Important topic and the different scenarios drawn from the author are interesting but overall waaaay too short and therefore doesn’t get to whatever the heart was supposed to be (imo)
June 16, 2024
This is an incredibly powerful book! It’s heartbreaking and inspiring and enlightening about our current justice system and prison system
August 15, 2025
Ugh. The criminal injustice system strikes again.
February 20, 2020
giving this 5 stars because it's a very accessible read, and anything that humanizes the marginalized deserves to be widely read.
April 29, 2009
This is the story of a young man I promise you will never forget after reading his story.
A subject we don't like to think about but must as it is a stain on our nation that is so generous and yet we allow this barbarianism called the death penalty, a severe form of human cruelty.
The first question we should ask is not was he guilty, but did he receive a fair trial? There are no millionaires on death row. Had Dominique Green not been poor and black he would not be on death row.
A slim but powerful 60 pages by historian Thomas Cahill. Dominique was held in solitary confinement 23 hours a day with 1 hour to exercise outside his confinement and this helped inspire a movement for an international moratorium on state-sanctioned executions, helped inspire a U.N. resolution against the death penalty, hosted a pilgrimage by South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu to death row in Huntsville, Tex. to visit him, and helped transform the lives of the other men with whom he shared death row.
That he did not receive a fair trial and even the wife and son of the person that Dominique allegedly killed, Bernatte and Andre Lastrapes, joined the struggle to have his sentence commuted.
That the U.S. is #4 in executions in the world along with China, Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia is something to seriously ponder! According to Amnesty International, 137 countries have abolished the death penalty. Argentina, Chile, and Uzbekistan outlawed the death penalty in 2008.
There is no evidence that the death penalty deters violent crime. In fact the incidence of violent crime and murder is greater in states with the death penalty. The average murder rate is 5.3 in death penalty states and 2.8 in states without the death penalty. 1 out of 8 are found to be innocent after their execution. Had they only received life in prison they would have been exonerated and released. But states such as Texas & Oklahoma motto is to fry as many niggers as they can. More information on murder rates by state is available from the Death Penalty Information Center: www.deathpenaltyinfo.org
Dominique Green, was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas, Oct. 26, 2004. His body was cremated and the ashes taken to Santa Maria Church in Trastevere, Rome, Italy. Trastevere is home to the Community of Sant'Egidio, an Italian lay church movement that befriended Green. Two members of the Sant'Egidio community were among the five witnesses to Green's execution.
A subject we don't like to think about but must as it is a stain on our nation that is so generous and yet we allow this barbarianism called the death penalty, a severe form of human cruelty.
The first question we should ask is not was he guilty, but did he receive a fair trial? There are no millionaires on death row. Had Dominique Green not been poor and black he would not be on death row.
A slim but powerful 60 pages by historian Thomas Cahill. Dominique was held in solitary confinement 23 hours a day with 1 hour to exercise outside his confinement and this helped inspire a movement for an international moratorium on state-sanctioned executions, helped inspire a U.N. resolution against the death penalty, hosted a pilgrimage by South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu to death row in Huntsville, Tex. to visit him, and helped transform the lives of the other men with whom he shared death row.
That he did not receive a fair trial and even the wife and son of the person that Dominique allegedly killed, Bernatte and Andre Lastrapes, joined the struggle to have his sentence commuted.
That the U.S. is #4 in executions in the world along with China, Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia is something to seriously ponder! According to Amnesty International, 137 countries have abolished the death penalty. Argentina, Chile, and Uzbekistan outlawed the death penalty in 2008.
There is no evidence that the death penalty deters violent crime. In fact the incidence of violent crime and murder is greater in states with the death penalty. The average murder rate is 5.3 in death penalty states and 2.8 in states without the death penalty. 1 out of 8 are found to be innocent after their execution. Had they only received life in prison they would have been exonerated and released. But states such as Texas & Oklahoma motto is to fry as many niggers as they can. More information on murder rates by state is available from the Death Penalty Information Center: www.deathpenaltyinfo.org
Dominique Green, was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas, Oct. 26, 2004. His body was cremated and the ashes taken to Santa Maria Church in Trastevere, Rome, Italy. Trastevere is home to the Community of Sant'Egidio, an Italian lay church movement that befriended Green. Two members of the Sant'Egidio community were among the five witnesses to Green's execution.
January 28, 2014
Such a fascinating account of the short life of Dominique Green, the lives he touched, his grace, his intelligence and his maturity, and how his life was doomed before it was started. If you didn't like Governor Rick Perry prior to reading this book, you will like him less. Let's hope he never runs for president of the US. If you didn't like George W. Bush prior to reading this book, you will like him less also. Each person, as governor of Texas, wanted to have the most executions to his credit during his tenure as governor..........overturning last minute appeals.......usually of the poor, the unfortunate and disadvantaged. If you thought the death penalty was applied fairly, you only have to read this short little book and you will understand that this is not the case.
This poor child, so disadvantaged from his youth, born to a drug addicted, schizophrenic mother, who not only abused her children, but openly turned tricks in front of them, and who stated on the witness stand that her son deserved to be executed........this poor child who fended for himself by selling drugs and renting a storage shed for his brother and sister so that they would have a place to live because of the terrible abuse and neglect in the family....this poor child who was accused of killing someone..........and who because of his poverty was not given the proper defense, and who was sentenced to death........this poor child grew up on Death Row........he became an articulate man, he became a saint...........and he died much too soon. Such a sad story of an unfinished life..........one doomed before it started.
But despite the circumstances in his life, and despite his living conditions and the circumstances at the end of his short life, Mr. Green rose above those and truly became a saint on death row. A wonderful, but heartbreaking little book.
This poor child, so disadvantaged from his youth, born to a drug addicted, schizophrenic mother, who not only abused her children, but openly turned tricks in front of them, and who stated on the witness stand that her son deserved to be executed........this poor child who fended for himself by selling drugs and renting a storage shed for his brother and sister so that they would have a place to live because of the terrible abuse and neglect in the family....this poor child who was accused of killing someone..........and who because of his poverty was not given the proper defense, and who was sentenced to death........this poor child grew up on Death Row........he became an articulate man, he became a saint...........and he died much too soon. Such a sad story of an unfinished life..........one doomed before it started.
But despite the circumstances in his life, and despite his living conditions and the circumstances at the end of his short life, Mr. Green rose above those and truly became a saint on death row. A wonderful, but heartbreaking little book.
March 29, 2009
This is a very important book. Its a book that changes the way we see the world and can potentially save lives. I hope. It deserves to be a huge bestseller that everyone is talking about. When we settle into our belief structures we often move through life looking for assurances that those beliefs are correct and give us peace of mind. But one of the gifts of being human is we can challenge our thought processes by reading or having experiences that can lead us to possibly see the world in a new light. This is just such a book.
Personally I grew up an advocate of the death penalty because I figured bad people convicted of murder could add no further value to society. But its not that simple and Thomas Cahill (and the experience of Domique Green) explain why in this eloquent story of one man's rebirth on death row. Issues such as the death penalty are complex. Cahill fell into an experience that led to this amazing (and tragic) story. We should stand up and take notice. My own experiences on a murder trial here in Orlando confirm much of what is presented here. What leads one to the point of murder? How do we really know they did it?
But the truly amazing thing is the man that Dominique Green becomes as a result of his time on death row. He becomes the man he always could be. Freed of the bonds of his social situation he blossoms into someone that we never imagined he could be. He is visited by Desmond Tutu. He touched the hearts of the victimized family. This is an amazing story and, sadly, one that repeats itself in many different forms for those condemned to death row.
Personally I grew up an advocate of the death penalty because I figured bad people convicted of murder could add no further value to society. But its not that simple and Thomas Cahill (and the experience of Domique Green) explain why in this eloquent story of one man's rebirth on death row. Issues such as the death penalty are complex. Cahill fell into an experience that led to this amazing (and tragic) story. We should stand up and take notice. My own experiences on a murder trial here in Orlando confirm much of what is presented here. What leads one to the point of murder? How do we really know they did it?
But the truly amazing thing is the man that Dominique Green becomes as a result of his time on death row. He becomes the man he always could be. Freed of the bonds of his social situation he blossoms into someone that we never imagined he could be. He is visited by Desmond Tutu. He touched the hearts of the victimized family. This is an amazing story and, sadly, one that repeats itself in many different forms for those condemned to death row.
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