Texas Death Row
Documentary photographer Light (Delta Time: Mississippi Photographs, Smithsonian, 1995) and Donovan, a freelance journalist and former director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, have collaborated on this visual and verbal tour of Texas's death row, where more people have been executed than in any other state. The authors contend that if, as a democratic society, America chooses capital punishment, the citizenry should see how it is carried out. Light's photographs are candid shots of the galleries, of inmates eating, reading, exercising, and staring out from behind bars as they await lethal injection. Donovan's accompanying text is unusually perceptive. Instead of dwelling on the horrors of the surroundings, she points out the ambiguities in the legal system and in the lives of the condemned. Each interview was a revelation to her, even to the point where she could see how much all human beings have in common with someone sentenced to death. Highly recommended for all libraries.?Frances Sandiford, Green Haven Correctional Facility Lib., Stormville, N.Y.Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.