A Saint on Death Row: The Story of Dominique Green

by Thomas Cahill

Book Overview

From the New York Times bestselling author of How the Irish Saved Civilization comes the absorbing, heartbreaking tale of the hard life and tragic death of Dominique Green--wrongly accused, then... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385520190
• ISBN13: 9780385520195
• Release Date: March 2009
• Publisher: Nan A. Talese
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.6" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

Saint on death row

Saint on Death Row made me cry out against the injustice in todays 'justice system'. It is a must read for todays youth.

A Saint on Death Row: The Story of Dominic Green

It broke my heart to read this book. It will make one dig deeply into one's soul to try and understand how one human being gets so lost through the ill-doings of so many.

Heartbreaking but informative

I knew this would be a wrenching story, but also expected it to be worthwhile judging from the endorsements by Sister Helen Prejean, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Jonathon Kozol. Of course I'm already opposed to the death penalty, but this tragic story strengthened my conviction and also provided a terrific example of the travesty of justice that the state of Texas is infamous for. Just when you think such injustice must certainly come to an end once the details of it get out, you learn that in fact it hasn't stopped: poor minorities still comprise the overwhelming percentage of state executions, and they don't get fair trials if they have the misfortune to be in Texas, Oklahoma, or the other states that so strongly favor capital punishment but shortchange the public defender requirements. The image of the "sleeping defense attorney" is by now a cliche, but indeed, courts still make use of these incompetent and disengaged law practitioners. Furthermore, once they're assigned to a capital case, it's impossible to replace them with competent counsel--one of those legal technicalities. Well, as for the story, of course Dominique Green is indeed a saintly person, who in spite of an almost unbelievably brutal upbringing, grows to sweetly forgive those who abused and condemned him and possibly those who wrongly accused him, as well as forging bonds of love with the victim's family (also black), who realized that he did not receive a fair trial and that he had no one to look out for him. His own mother, who was known to be mentally ill, even called for his execution during his trial!--which elicited the pity of the victim's wife, herself also a mother. But Green forgave the people who wronged him and used his years in prison to teach himself to write and think eloquently. Even within the confines of solitary confinement, he managed to reach out to other prisoners and befriend and help them. One of his projects was a collective manuscript, co-written by the men on death row. The story is overwhelmingly sad, but the book contains many pages of references at the end, listing organizations that oppose the death penalty and some that assist broken families to prevent children growing up as Dominique did. Cahill occasionally loses his objectivity, but I can't imagine how anyone could do otherwise in the face of this remarkable young prisoner.

Inexplicable truth...

The story of African pain, particulary African American pain is seldom recognized by the greater society here in North America. Sometimes it is best told to them, as Malcolm X indirectly stated at his Oxford address, by "one of their own" and though you will find those individuals that are blinded by the notion that color or ethnicity does not matter, in this "age of Obama" as my mother a South Carolina native would declare, "the truth will come out in the wash" hence, the book "A Saint on Death Row." Thomas Cahill does an excellent job in detailing the short but progressive life of Dominique Green, a 30 year old African American executed by lethal injection in Huntsville Texas, a death row factory in Harris County. The question is asked in the latter part of the book should not be "did he do it?" but "did he receive a fair trial?" and the second question is like it: "Were his subsequent encounters with the law fair?" A very interesting read.

Inspiring

A book that will be a classic. Can help anyone one of us see that we can learn and flourish in the most important ways, wherever we find ourselves. A wonderfully uplifting, realistic account of the short life of a remarkable young man.