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The Autobiography of an Execution |  | Author: David R. Dow
Publisher: Twelve
Category: eBooks
This item is no longer available
Rating:  53 reviews
Sales Rank: 26924
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Edition: 1
Pages: 288
Number Of Items: 1
Dewey Decimal Number: 345.7640773
ASIN: B0037VD12S
Publication Date: February 3, 2010
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Product Description
Near the beginning of The Autobiography of an Execution, David Dow lays his cards on the table. "People think that because I am against the death penalty and don't think people should be executed, that I forgive those people for what they did. Well, it isn't my place to forgive people, and if it were, I probably wouldn't. I'm a judgmental and not very forgiving guy. Just ask my wife."
It this spellbinding true crime narrative, Dow takes us inside of prisons, inside the complicated minds of judges, inside execution-administration chambers, into the lives of death row inmates (some shown to be innocent, others not) and even into his own home--where the toll of working on these gnarled and difficult cases is perhaps inevitably paid. He sheds insight onto unexpected phenomena-- how even religious lawyer and justices can evince deep rooted support for putting criminals to death-- and makes palpable the suspense that clings to every word and action when human lives hang in the balance.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 53
 Amazon does not provide information about how to send money to a private seller. August 16, 2010
David L. Phipps (Doral, Florida, US)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Well it is difficult to rate if, so far, I have not received the book. Amazon did not explain how to send money to a private seller. The seller sent the book to my U.S. address but for some reason it was returned to the seller with the note, undeliverable. This is not Amazon's problem. However, about 10 days after I did not receive the book when it was expected and started to follow-up with Amazon I learned of the issue. When I tried to contact the seller indicating my book was returned (I don't know if the seller would have notified me or simply forgot and kept my money)I was told that I needed to send 3.99 via Paypal and a new shipping address if I wanted to receive the book. Ok, having never used Paypal I set up an account and sent the money to the only email address identified in Amazon. This time I followed up with the seller through the "Contact Seller" link in the Amazon site indicating I had sent the money. The seller never received the money. Later, after emailing image clips of the verification that money was sent, the seller said the Amazon address for her was temporary and she couldn't receive the money from this email address. Apparentliy Amazon (fairly) strips all references to private email addresses with the exception of what I now learned is a temporary Amazon email address for the seller. The seller didn't know Amazon stripped her private email address. So, apparently, I need to go to the Paypall site, cancell the payment and resend to the sellers personal email address which after 6 emails was sent to me by the seller. I still don't have the book!!!! I don't have my money!!!! My first experience buying from a private seller through Amazon has not been good. I live in an area outside of the U.S. where books are not easy to get and when I have the opportunity to get new books I get a little excited. It is too bad this excitement has evolved into dissapointment. David
 A Fascinating Look at the Dilemma of Capital Punishment June 7, 2010
Bookreporter.com (New York, New York)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
"I tell young lawyers who want to be death-penalty lawyers that if it's going to be disabling to watch your clients die, you need to find something else to do. Your clients are going to die."
David R. Dow is a distinguished professor at the University of Houston Law Center and the litigation director at the Texas Defender Service. An author, a husband, a father and a dog lover, Dow has watched men get executed and then gone home to hold hands with his wife and gaze lovingly at his little boy. He has wondered if his son's two-year-old night terrors were his fault, caused by what he brings into the house. In a recent interview with NPR, he talked about how when he leaves his work on death row, he comes home and ritually launders all the clothes he was wearing --- every time.
"I am always hopeful. Nothing ever works out, but I always think that it's going to. How else could you keep doing this work?" Because he believes all killing is wrong, Dow defends the undefended and the indefensible. He knows that the majority of men on his caseload are guilty of heinous crimes. But not all.
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN EXECUTION tells the long story of Dow's work with a man he calls "Quaker" (naturally, the name he chose is symbolic). Quaker was convicted of murdering his estranged wife and two little children, but the murder weapon was never found. There were life insurance policies on the three victims --- that fact stood out in his conviction, along with the well-known wisdom that spouses are always suspects. Quaker had witnessed the deaths of two friends in a fire that consumed part of the chemical plant where he worked; afterwords he became withdrawn, apparently traumatized. He confesses to Dow that he couldn't give his wife, whom he characterized as the love of his life, the "intimacy" she needed. They separated, she and his kids wound up dead, and Quaker found himself on death row in a cell barely big enough to walk in, waiting for his execution date. Setting that date is part of Dow's job. It's all about the ticking clock, the countdown.
Dow intersperses Quaker's story with many others --- other men guilty and perhaps not, a few who cheated the executioner, like the one who was clearly mentally incompetent and whose sentence was converted to life. Dow believes that any method of cheating is okay (like dying before the sentence can be carried out) because he believes that all executions are a miscarriage of justice. He is not, he declares, a religious man. His beliefs are his own. He once threatened a preacher who had wormed his way onto death row and was convincing prisoners to stop pleading for their lives in favor of looking forward to heavenly glory. Yet he admired the preacher for having gotten so close to these hardened souls. Men on death row have lost trust.
Dow lets us in on a harsh world of criminal snitches, lying cops, sleeping lawyers, stupidity, cruelty and legal loopholes, where it's hard to tell the good guys from the bad ones, where racism is a stark fact and death is the known, the norm. He lets us laugh a little and shows us his own contrasting existence as a loving but sometimes absent dad and a caring but often distracted husband. Even his dog sometimes fails to get his attention. But we know that his absence and distraction have a purpose. And his clients are aware of it too. On the night of his execution, a man named Johnny said to him, "You did everything. You were the only one. Now go right home when you leave this hell and hug your son, okay?" So Dow went home and hugged his sleeping son.
Quaker came to trust Dow. And Dow did everything possible within the legal system as it exists to help him, in the process becoming convinced of Quaker's innocence. But that is not necessary for Dow. He will do everything he can for everyone he works for. That is the essential message of this remarkable book.
Going Down Slow June 1, 2010
Sacramento Book Review (Sacramento, CA)
David Dow's strangely titled book is a journal of his legal defense work in death penalty cases, and a memoir of his personal life with his wife and son (he was late to marry). Unfortunately, it never quite decides what it wants to be, so it offers a not-so-fascinating look at both aspects of his life. There seem to be two characters vying for attention here: David Dow the brass-knuckled street-fighting attorney and David Dow the gentle family man. The one thing that is obvious is that Dow has an immense ego, something he quotes his wife as remarking upon.
Then there's the writing style. Dow admits that he is not an accomplished writer; //Execution// is practically devoid of style. The quirky narrative bounces from tense legal cases to family matters without any apparent structure. On the plus side, this stream-of-consciousness approach does not require a lot of attention from the reader, because Dow does not stick to any one topic for very long.
This is an airplane-ride book, offering a far less substantive treatment of the death-penalty debate than a prospective purchaser might expect.
Reviewed by Joseph Arellano
outstanding personalized account May 20, 2010
Robert W. Smith (Virginia, USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I can't imagine that lots of people would read and review this book who didn't have at least a sense of social injustice or reluctance. This is an excellent account of a legal professional who has worked in this system, trying to bring some hope to those on death row. It is easy to read, relatively short. It WILL leave a lasting impression on the reader, at least, it has done so with me. I give this a thumb's up and endorse it!
Unfocused, spacey, missing something April 29, 2010
Gary Bartz (Michigan)
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
Dow is a part time death row appeal lawyer who also teaches law. A big chunk of the book introduces us to what appears to be a stream of thought he feels as he goes around trying to keep murderers from being executed.
It could be a result of his writing, but the guy isn't very likeable. Kid wants to go to a halloween party, and dad/author promised to take him? Sitting around waiting for an execution is more important, not even a call for the kid. Ditto for wife's stuff. Dow is so liberal he thinks it makes him a good guy to give bums money to hang around under bridges. A lawyer leaves at the end of the workday instead of spinning his wheels all night like Dow? Fire him for not making the gesture to show everyone he cares too much.
The writing itself is so out there, it is like listening to guy smoking pot and drinking red bull for the first time in college. Just painful to read after a while. So jumpy and spacey at the same time.
The author also keeps claiming he used to be in favor of death, but he does not list a single real reason why. That may be fair, though, since the reasons he lists for being against it are nothing more than you would hear from a college freshman trying to repeat something their prof said in class. Just nothing there.
Dow is very judgemental of death case trial defense lawyers. Not everyone can be the best, but I think he may be grossly overstating how bad many of them are. There is also an attempt to claim that a female judge on one of his cases tried to get him in the sack. That storyline had my BS sensor triggered some.
One place Dow is most focused, and the reason to read the book, is his descriptions of the clients/murderers. These are weird, bad, evil, stupid, mind game playing people. The author does show us that. He tells us that, too, a little. But mostly he shows it.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 53
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