Congregation of the Condemned: Voices Against the Death Penalty by Shirley Dicks (Editor), Edward Moore Kennedy

From the Publisher

Justice in America is dealt out not blindly, but selectively. "People have been sentenced to death not because they have been found to be uncontrollably violent but because they were hopelessly poor.... They are the losers in an arbitrary lottery", says the author.

Other contributors include Senator Edward Kennedy, Mike Farrell, Mario Cuomo, Hugo Bedau, Tom Wicker, Peter Gabriel, Watt Espy, Coretta Scott King, and many others.

Publishers Weekly

This is gripping reading. The words of death-row inmates on the subject of capital punishment jump off the page. Fear, hope, bitterness, regrets, love and the anguish of their last minutes are all here. The book is compiled by the mother of Tennessee death-row inmate Jeff Dicks. He's here too. So are other relatives of inmates and victims. Doctors, activists, lawyers, Edward Kennedy, Coretta Scott King, Mario Cuomo and Camille Gabriel, mother of a murder victim, also contribute essays. Among their persuasive conclusions: it is the poor who are executed, and some of them are innocent. ``What good is the law if it can't protect the innocent from false imprisonment?'' asks one inmate. This book makes one wonder. (Jan.)

Booknews

A collection of 49 essays calling for an end to the death penalty--by death-row inmates, members of victims' families, legal and medical experts, religious and political figures (e.g. Edward Kennedy, Mario Cuomo), journalists (e.g. Tom Wicker), entertainers (e.g. Mike Farrell, Peter Gabriel), and spokespersons from such organizations as Amnesty International, the NAACP (Coretta Scott King), and the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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