Sentenced to Die

Sentenced to Die
Author: J. A. Jance
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 668
Release: 2005-03
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780060776039

Now for the first time in one captivating volume, here are the first three mysteries featuring J. A. Jance's most popular and enduring character, Seattle homicide detective Jonas Piedmont Beaumont. It's a trio of tales steeped in the atmosphere of the Pacific Northwest that is sure to remind everyone that Jance is a master of modern suspense fiction. In Until Proven Guilty Beaumont finds himself investigating the murder of a five-year-old girl. But his own obsessions and demons could prove dangerous companions in a murky world of blind faith and religious fanaticism as he discovers that he himself is the target of a twisted passion ... and a love that can kill. In Injustice for All Beaumont's well-earned vacation becomes a waking nightmare as he's forced to comfort a beautiful blonde after she discovers a dead body on a Washington beach. Suddenly a lethal brew of lust, madness, and politics threatens to drag the dedicated Seattle cop into the path of a killer whose dark hunger is rapidly becoming an obsession. And in Trial by Fury a naked, dead body is found lying in a Dumpster. What's most shocking is the manner in which the man died -- he was lynched. The victim, a high school coach, has left behind a very pregnant wife with a very dangerous secret. And a sixth sense developed over twenty years on the job tells Beaumont that this investigation is going to the lethal extremes of passion, lies, and hatred.

Death Sentence

Death Sentence
Author: Jerry Bledsoe
Publisher: Diversion Books
Total Pages: 546
Release: 2014-05-18
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 1626812888

In this “true story that reads like a novel,” the #1 New York Times–bestselling author reveals the facts behind a notorious Southern murder case (Library Journal). When North Carolina farmer Stuart Taylor died after a sudden illness, his forty-six-year-old fiancée, Velma Barfield, was overcome with grief. Taylor’s family grieved with her—until the autopsy revealed traces of arsenic poisoning. Turned over to the authorities by her own son, Velma stunned her family with more revelations. This wasn’t the first time she had committed cold-blooded murder, and she would eventually be tried by the “world’s deadliest prosecutor” and sentenced to death. This book probes Velma’s stark descent into madness, her prescription drug addiction, and her effort to turn her life around through Christianity. From her harrowing childhood to the crimes that incited a national debate over the death penalty, to the final moments of her execution, Velma Barfield’s life of crime and punishment, revenge and redemption, this is crime reporting at its most gripping and profound. “A painfully intimate, moving story about the life and death of the only woman executed in the U.S. between 1962–1998 . . . With graceful writing and thorough reporting, it makes the reader look hard at something dark and sad in the human soul . . . Breathes new life into the true crime genre.” —The News & Observer “Undertakes to answer the questions about the justice system and the motives that drive women to kill.” —The Washington Post Book World “An extraordinary piece of writing . . . The most chilling description of a legal execution that we are ever likely to get.” —Citizen-Times “Taut and engrossing on the nature of justice and the death penalty as well as on guilt and responsibility.” —Booklist

Executions in the United States, 1608-1987

Executions in the United States, 1608-1987
Author: M. Watt Espy
Publisher: Inter-University Consortium for Political & Social Research
Total Pages: 124
Release: 1987
Genre: Social Science
ISBN:

This study furnishes data on executions performed in the United States under civil authority. It includes a description of each individual executed and the circumstances surrounding the crime for which the person was convicted. Variables include age, race, name, sex, and occupation of the offender, place, jurisdiction, date and method of execution and the crime for which the offender was executed.

Courting Death

Courting Death
Author: Carol S. Steiker
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2016-11-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 0674737423

Before constitutional regulation -- The Supreme Court steps in -- The invisibility of race in the constitutional revolution -- Between the Supreme Court and the states -- The failures of regulation -- An unsustainable system? -- Recurring patterns in constitutional regulation -- The future of the American death penalty -- Life after death

Capital Punishment in Japan

Capital Punishment in Japan
Author: Petra Schmidt
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2002
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9789004124219

This book provides an overview of capital punishment in Japan in a legal, historical, social, cultural and political context. It provides new insights into the system, challenges traditional views and arguments and seeks the real reasons behind the retention of capital punishment in Japan.

Living on Death Row

Living on Death Row
Author: Hans Toch
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 9781433829000

PROSE Award Finalist for Psychology This book synthesizes scholarly reflections with personal accounts from prison administrators and inmates to show the harsh reality of life on death row.

The Death of Punishment

The Death of Punishment
Author: Robert Blecker
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
Total Pages: 341
Release: 2013-11-19
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1137381337

For twelve years Robert Blecker, a criminal law professor, wandered freely inside Lorton Central Prison, armed only with cigarettes and a tape recorder. The Death of Punishment tests legal philosophy against the reality and wisdom of street criminals and their guards. Some killers' poignant circumstances should lead us to mercy; others show clearly why they should die. After thousands of hours over twenty-five years inside maximum security prisons and on death rows in seven states, the history and philosophy professor exposes the perversity of justice: Inside prison, ironically, it's nobody's job to punish. Thus the worst criminals often live the best lives. The Death of Punishment challenges the reader to refine deeply held beliefs on life and death as punishment that flare up with every news story of a heinous crime. It argues that society must redesign life and death in prison to make the punishment more nearly fit the crime. It closes with the final irony: If we make prison the punishment it should be, we may well abolish the very death penalty justice now requires.

Real Justice: Fourteen and Sentenced to Death

Real Justice: Fourteen and Sentenced to Death
Author: Bill Swan
Publisher: Lorimer
Total Pages: 156
Release: 2012-03-14
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 1459400747

At fourteen, Steve Truscott was a typical teenager in rural Ontario in the fifties, mainly concerned about going fishing, playing football, and racing bikes with his friends. One summer evening, his twelve-year-old classmate, Lynne Harper, asked for a lift to the nearby highway on his bicycle and Steve agreed. Unfortunately, that made Steve the last person known to see Lynne alive. His world collapsed around him when he was arrested and then convicted of killing Lynne Harper. The penalty at the time was death by hanging. Although the sentence was changed to life in prison, Steve suffered for years behind bars for a murder he didn't commit. When his case gained national attention, the Supreme Court of Canada reviewed the evidence -- and confirmed his conviction. It took over forty years and a determination to prove his innocence for him to finally clear his name. He has since received an apology and compensation for his ordeal. In this book, young readers will discover how an innocent boy was presumed guilty by the justice system, and how in the end, that same justice system, prodded by Truscott and his lawyers, was able to acknowledge the terrible wrong done to him. [Fry reading level - 4.8

Let the Lord Sort Them

Let the Lord Sort Them
Author: Maurice Chammah
Publisher: Crown
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2021-01-26
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1524760277

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • A deeply reported, searingly honest portrait of the death penalty in Texas—and what it tells us about crime and punishment in America “If you’re one of those people who despair that nothing changes, and dream that something can, this is a story of how it does.”—Anand Giridharadas, The New York Times Book Review WINNER OF THE J. ANTHONY LUKAS AWARD In 1972, the United States Supreme Court made a surprising ruling: the country’s death penalty system violated the Constitution. The backlash was swift, especially in Texas, where executions were considered part of the cultural fabric, and a dark history of lynching was masked by gauzy visions of a tough-on-crime frontier. When executions resumed, Texas quickly became the nationwide leader in carrying out the punishment. Then, amid a larger wave of criminal justice reform, came the death penalty’s decline, a trend so durable that even in Texas the punishment appears again close to extinction. In Let the Lord Sort Them, Maurice Chammah charts the rise and fall of capital punishment through the eyes of those it touched. We meet Elsa Alcala, the orphaned daughter of a Mexican American family who found her calling as a prosecutor in the nation’s death penalty capital, before becoming a judge on the state’s highest court. We meet Danalynn Recer, a lawyer who became obsessively devoted to unearthing the life stories of men who committed terrible crimes, and fought for mercy in courtrooms across the state. We meet death row prisoners—many of them once-famous figures like Henry Lee Lucas, Gary Graham, and Karla Faye Tucker—along with their families and the families of their victims. And we meet the executioners, who struggle openly with what society has asked them to do. In tracing these interconnected lives against the rise of mass incarceration in Texas and the country as a whole, Chammah explores what the persistence of the death penalty tells us about forgiveness and retribution, fairness and justice, history and myth. Written with intimacy and grace, Let the Lord Sort Them is the definitive portrait of a particularly American institution.

Until Proven Guilty

Until Proven Guilty
Author: J. A. Jance
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 343
Release: 2009-10-13
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0061758221

“Any story by Jance is a joy.” —Chattanooga Times Now fans of the enormously popular Sheriff Joanna Brady suspense series by J.A. Jance can discover another side to the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author. Until Proven Guilty—a riveting tale of the very worst kind of murder—marks the debut of Seattle Homicide Detective J.P. Beaumont. This Premium Plus edition of Until Proven Guilty—the classic novel that put the incomparable Jance on the crime fiction map—indisputably proves that she truly belongs “in the elite company of Sue Grafton and Patricia Cornwell” (Flint Journal).