num_pages: 310
description: From the author of the national bestseller Dead Man Walking comes a brave and fiercely argued new book that tests the moral edge of the debate on capital What if we’re executing innocent men? Two cases in point are Dobie Gillis Williams, an indigent black man with an IQ of 65, and Joseph Roger O’Dell. Both were convicted of murder on flimsy evidence (O’Dell’s principal accuser was a jailhouse informant who later recanted his testimony). Both were executed in spite of numerous appeals. Sister Helen Prejean watched both of them die.As she recounts these men’s cases and takes us through their terrible last moments, Prejean brilliantly dismantles the legal and religious arguments that have been used to justify the death penalty. Riveting, moving, and ultimately damning, The Death of Innocents is a book we dare not ignore.
language: English
title: The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions
titlecomplete: The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions
genres: Social Justice, Law, History, Sociology, Spirituality, Memoir, Crime, Nonfiction, True Crime, Politics
ratings_count: 711
awards: awardedAt: 1136102400000
name: ALCS Dagger for Non-fiction
publisher: Vintage