Ultimate Sanction: Understanding the Death Penalty Through its Many Voices and Many Sides
Of all the exhaustive scholarship into the death penalty and its complications, Bohm's effort offers the most diverse array of opinions. Bohm (The Death Penalty Today) interviews people at every step of the process (excluding the condemned themselves) to see how the death penalty influences the criminal justice system from investigation to execution, along the way discovering a severe ambivalence about the effectiveness of capital punishment even from people who perform executions. He also uncovers the penalty's unintentional collateral damage: the devastated families of victims and the condemned alike. While Bohm is clearly against capital punishment, the array of opinions he has mobilized to support his views is staggering, and their expertise and variety lend weight and credence to his examination. Bohm is a thoughtful editor and never stops offering reasons for eliminating the death penalty. Though to his credit, he also outlines a number of legal reasons that keep the penalty firmly in place. Readers hungry for a range of knowledgeable opinions will find this book fascinating.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.