CONGREGATION OF THE CONDEMNED.: Voices Against the Death Penalty.

Softcover, 1st US edn. With Essays by Edward Kennedy, Mario Cuomo, Tom Wicker, Mike Farrell, Coretta Scott King, Peter Gabriel, and others. This powerful collection of 49 essays eloquently and movingly calls for an end to the death penalty in the USA. Editor Shirley Dicks, whose son Jeff was on Tennessee's death row, became bitterly aware that justice in America is dealt out not blindly but selectively. In 1979, Jeff Dicks unwittingly became an accessory to a robbery that resulted in the death of a storekeeper. A bungled defence, the misuse of circumstantial evidence, and manipulated testimony led to Jeff's conviction for murder. At the time of publication he had been on death row ever since, stymied in his attempts to appeal his case by lack of money to hire adequate legal representation. Shirley Dicks's initial reaction to her son's conviction was outrage and incredulity. She began to research the death penalty in the United States. Her research revealed that her son's predicament was by no means atypical of the US "justice system". "People have been sentenced to death not because they have been found to be uncontrollably violent but because they were hopelessely poor...You won't find a wealthy person on death row. A system like this does not enhance respect for human life; it cheapens and degrades it." This book features writings by death-row inmates, members of victims' families, legal and medical experts, religious and political figures, actors, journalists, as well as opinions from such organisations as the ACLU, and the NAACP. Illus. 290pp. 8vo. Trade p/back. Vg+