Ultimate Punishment: A Lawyer's Reflections on Dealing with the Death Penalty

by Scott Turow

Book Overview

America's leading writer about the law takes a close, incisive look at one of society's most vexing legal issues Scott Turow is known to millions as the author of peerless novels about the troubling regions of experience where law and reality intersect. In "real life," as a respected criminal lawyer, he has been involved with the death penalty for more than a decade, including successfully representing two different men convicted in death-penalty...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374128731
• ISBN13: 9780374128739
• Release Date: October 2003
• Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
• Length: 164 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.3" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

What to do with a murderer!

This book is a good review of what should be done to someone who commits murder.While there are many choices that have been used over the centuries;this book zeros in on the option of the death penalty.All the reasons for and against using the death penalty are presented; but in only brief detail. Turow shows that the pronouncement and application of the ultimate punishment has been so inconsistant for a variety of reasons ,that there is some logic in elimination of it. It seems that no matter how much the issue is studied that people will continue to have their own agendae,convictions and reasons to be for and againstit. At one end of the spectrum are those who feel that criminals are not responsible for their actions,it's because of what society has done to them.This is the old victimization theory."When something goes wrong,it's somebody's fault,not mine." At the other end of the spectrum is the idea that people have a free will and they are responsible for their actions,not somebody else. So,the issue that is really at hand is not the Death Penalty ,but what to do with the criminals and how to protect those who live responsible lives from those who have no respect foe life. It would seem that an alternative to the death penalty would be to remove those convicted of henious crimes from society for good.You have to agree that the death penalty,with all its issues does that in spades. What would be a solution would be if those convicted never got released.If most people who support the death penalty really believed that that was really going to happenr that isn't going to happen,then their support for the death penalty would disappear. Here in Canada a "life term" ends up being something like 7 years.Canada no longer uses the death penalty,but turning murderers loose is not the answer --especially for the victims and society.

We should all care about what this book has to say.

Scott Turow shows us the illogicality of the death penalty by telling of his own experiences as both a prosecutor and as a member of a task force assembled to inform the governor of Illinois on death penalty policy. Contrary to what many people may think, the book does not condemn the death penalty for moral reasons but on the basis of the ambiguity with which it is exercised in America. It would be too absolutist to say every American should read this book, so I will limit it only to those Americans who feel the death penalty has a place in our society and legal system. I doubt they will come away so staunchly in support of capital punishment and all that it entails.

REQUIRED READING

I am not the type to offer a verbose review. Suffice it to say that this is an exceptional work of non-fiction that offers arguably the most balanced view to date of the U.S. system of capital punishment. I am a reformed death penalty proponent who went through a period of Turow-esque "agnosticism" before settling firmly on the side of opposition. I am no longer ambivalent. The death penalty should be abolished--period. Though Turow's book had no effect on my change, it did help solidify my current stance. This book should be required reading in any course of study dealing with the criminal justice system, and I do plan to use it in the future in the college criminal justice courses that I teach, along with Scheck, Neufeld, and Dwyer's "Actual Innocence." Perhaps the powers that be will eventually wake up and smell the stench of injustice . . . but I'm not holding my breath. . . .

Governor Ryan's unprecedented commutation death row inmates

Heard ULTIMATE PUNISHMENT, written and read by novelist ScottTurow . . . it is a sobering, nonfiction account of Turow's service on the Illinois commission that investigated the administration of the death penalty and influenced Governor George Ryan's unprecedented commutation of the sentences of 164 death row inmates on his last day in office.I remember in 2003 when I read about the above how I wondered,"What gives?" . . . although not a strong supporter of the deathpenalty (then), I still believed that it did serve a useful purpose in certain instances--and it was a definite deterrent to future crimes of a heinous nature.Now, after reading Turow's latest effort, I'm not at all sure . . . I've become convinced that there are serious flaws in the criminal justice system . . . furthermore, I realize now that too many innocent people have been wrongly convicted of murder with race or lack of income often being the only reason this happens.The author provides many examples, supporting his analysisof the issue . . . this one really struck home: [Chris Thomas is]"condemned to die because he is poor and belligerent, whilethe likes of the Menendez brothers, who shotgunned theirparents for their millions, or the Unabomber . . . get life."

A Very Valuable Book on a Controversial Subject

I have been a fan of Scott Turow's fiction for a number of years. So, when I was asked to read and review his latest work, a nonfiction book dealing with one of the most controversial topics in America today, that of capital punishment, I eagerly anticipated the opportunity to find out what this bestselling author-lawyer had to say on the subject. I was not disappointed. Turow's very short treatise on the "ultimate punishment" (only about 120 pages of actual discussion) immediately brings the controversy into focus and lays out the arguments on both sides of the issue. Admitting that initially he was an "agnostic" regarding the death penalty, Turow was appointed to serve on the Illinois Commission on Capital Punishment by then-Governor George Ryan, who had declared a moratorium on further executions in Illinois on January 31, 2000, a decision that was heavily criticized by many both in his own state and also nationwide. Ryan's justification for his action was that the Illinois' capital justice system was "fraught with error." Shortly after he issued the moratorium, Governor Ryan put together a fourteen-member Commission to look into the matter of reforming the system. Former prosecutor and now-defense attorney Scott Turow has used his experience serving on the Commission to examine the very serious debate over the death penalty in "Ultimate Punishment." Turow's examination of capital punishment is not merely theoretical. He has been directly involved in death penalty cases, including successfully representing two different individuals convicted in death-penalty prosecutions. In other words, he can speak from practical experience and not just from the ivory tower of academic debate. Along the way, the reader will get a brief overview of the history of the capital punishment debate in America as well as insights into the pros and cons that have divided those in favor of the death penalty and those opposed to it. To his credit, I found Turow to be profoundly fair in his analysis of both sides of the argument. One senses in this book that for the author this has been a very personal quest for wisdom regarding the matter of capital punishment. One can sense a continuing wrestling with the issue over a lengthy period of time. This book seems to be no "rush to judgment" on the part of Scott Turow. His writing at times is very introspective and at points, one might say, it is a clinical study in self-analysis involving very private ethical conflicts over a matter of supreme importance. He discusses the ordinary elements in the debate -- conviction of the innocent, deterrence, recidivism, and redemption -- but he also pays attention to the victims and their concerns, and how these concerns should be addressed in the calculus of the debate. The death penalty as a form of punishment is not a subject one should take lightly. For decades, I have publicly debated the issue, written about it, and agonized over my position regarding it. Ultimately, I decided tha