Download or read book Devil in the Grove written by Gilbert King and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2012-03-06 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Pulitzer Prize “A must-read, cannot-put-down history.” — Thomas Friedman, New York Times Arguably the most important American lawyer of the twentieth century, Thurgood Marshall was on the verge of bringing the landmark suit Brown v. Board of Education before the U.S. Supreme Court when he became embroiled in a case that threatened to change the course of the civil rights movement and cost him his life. In 1949, Florida's orange industry was booming, and citrus barons got rich on the backs of cheap Jim Crow labor with the help of Sheriff Willis V. McCall, who ruled Lake County with murderous resolve. When a white seventeen-year-old girl cried rape, McCall pursued four young black men who dared envision a future for themselves beyond the groves. The Ku Klux Klan joined the hunt, hell-bent on lynching the men who came to be known as "the Groveland Boys." Associates thought it was suicidal for Marshall to wade into the "Florida Terror," but the young lawyer would not shrink from the fight despite continuous death threats against him. Drawing on a wealth of never-before-published material, including the FBI's unredacted Groveland case files, as well as unprecedented access to the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund files, Gilbert King shines new light on this remarkable civil rights crusader.

Download or read book A Lesson Before Dying written by Ernest J. Gaines and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2004-01-20 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER • A deep and compassionate novel about a young man who returns to 1940s Cajun country to visit a Black youth on death row for a crime he didn't commit. Together they come to understand the heroism of resisting. "An instant classic." —Chicago Tribune A “majestic, moving novel...an instant classic, a book that will be read, discussed and taught beyond the rest of our lives" (Chicago Tribune), from the critically acclaimed author of A Gathering of Old Men and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. "A Lesson Before Dying reconfirms Ernest J. Gaines's position as an important American writer." —Boston Globe "Enormously moving.... Gaines unerringly evokes the place and time about which he writes." —Los Angeles Times “A quietly moving novel [that] takes us back to a place we've been before to impart a lesson for living.” —San Francisco Chronicle

Download or read book Beneath a Ruthless Sun written by Gilbert King and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2019-04-23 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Exposes the sinister complexity of American racism... King tells this... story with grace and sensitivity, and his narrative never flags." --Jeffrey Toobin, New York Times Book Review From the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller Devil in the Grove comes the story of a small town with a big secret. In December 1957, the wife of a Florida citrus baron is raped in her home while her husband is away. She claims a "husky Negro" did it, and the sheriff, the infamous racist Willis McCall, does not hesitate to round up a herd of suspects. But within days, McCall turns his sights on Jesse Daniels, a gentle, mentally impaired white nineteen-year-old. Soon Jesse is railroaded up to the state hospital for the insane, and locked away without trial. But crusading journalist Mabel Norris Reese cannot stop fretting over the case and its baffling outcome. Who was protecting whom, or what? She pursues the story for years, chasing down leads, hitting dead ends, winning unlikely allies. Bit by bit, the unspeakable truths behind a conspiracy that shocked a community into silence begin to surface. Beneath a Ruthless Sun tells a powerful, page-turning story rooted in the fears that rippled through the South as integration began to take hold, sparking a surge of virulent racism that savaged the vulnerable, debased the powerful, and roils our own times still.

Download or read book Death by Installments written by Arthur S. Miller and published by Praeger. This book was released on 1988-08-16 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The principle revealed in Death by Installments is that the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment does not guarantee protection to black men who kill whites. Reading the carefully researched and well-told story of Willie Francis offers a four-decade-old view of both the society's commitment to this principle, and the Supreme Court's unwillingness then and now to challenge it. Derrick Bell, Harvard Law School ...not just a `good' but a splendidly written, expertly researched, grippingly told, and passionately presented tome that can proudly take its place alongside Anthony Lewis' Gideon's Trumpet. Henry J. Abraham, University of Virginia The case of Willie Francis has been scrutinized and reexamined over the past several decades, and it is still not clear whether he was guilty of the crime for which he was executed in Louisiana forty years ago. Miller and Bowman's book recounts the ordeal of this teenaged black youth who was sent a second time to the electric chair a year after repeated attempts to supply enough current to kill him failed. His tragic story raises disturbing questions not only about capital punishment itself but about the humanity of our methods of carrying out executions and our capacity as a nation to uphold fundamental rights guaranteed by our Constitution. Miller and Bowman describe Francis' experiences from the time of his arrest, and they review the legal struggles within the Supreme Court that followed the botched execution attempt. In considering Eighth Amendment provisions against cruel and unusual punishment, the Court held that Willie Francis' previous subjection to electrical current did not make his subsequent electrocution any more cruel in the constitutional sense than any other electrocution. The authors examine the far-reaching implications of this stand in light of the many similar--but unpublicized--incidents of prolonged, agonizing executions by electrocution, gas, and even lethal injection. They contend that the Court has never faced the issue squarely and that its failure to set limits on the inflicting of pain in the Willie Francis case renders the Eighth Amendment guarantee meaningless.

Download or read book The Mercy Seat written by Elizabeth H. Winthrop and published by Grove Press. This book was released on 2018-05-08 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The acclaimed novel by the author of The Why of Things tackles “the Deep South during the Gothic worst of Jim Crow times . . . truly a bravura performance” (Geoffrey Wolff). “One of the finest writers of her generation,” and author of three previously acclaimed novels, Elizabeth H. Winthrop delivers a brave new book that will launch her distinguished career anew (Brad Watson). On the eve of his execution, eighteen-year-old Willie Jones sits in his cell in New Iberia awaiting his end. Across the state, a truck driven by a convict and his keeper carries the executioner’s chair closer. On a nearby highway, Willie’s father Frank lugs a gravestone on the back of his fading, old mule. In his office the DA who prosecuted Willie reckons with his sentencing, while at their gas station at the crossroads outside of town, married couple Ora and Dale grapple with their grief and their secrets. As various members of the township consider and reflect on what Willie’s execution means, an intricately layered and complex portrait of a Jim Crow era Southern community emerges. Moving from voice to voice, Winthrop elegantly brings to stark light the story of a town, its people, and its injustices. The Mercy Seat is a brutally incisive and tender novel from one of our most acute literary observers. “Artful and succinctly poetic . . . A worthy novel that gathers great power as it rolls on propelled by its many voices.”—The New York Times Book Review “A miracle of a novel, with rapid-fire sentences that grab you and propel you to the next page . . . It’s a breakout. It’s a wonder.”—Dallas Morning News

Download or read book Capital Punishment on Trial written by David M. Oshinsky and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Pulitzer Prize-winning historian takes a new and closer look at the Supreme Court's controversial and much-debated stance on capital punishment in the landmark case of Furman v. Georgia.

Download or read book The Execution of Willie Francis written by Gilbert King and published by Civitas Books. This book was released on 2008 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The inspiration behind "A Lesson Before Dying" meets the best of John Grisham as a young Cajun lawyer fights to save a black teenager from the electric chair. 16-page b&w photo insert.

Download or read book The Wrong Carlos written by James S. Liebman and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2014-07-08 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1989, Texas executed Carlos DeLuna, a poor Hispanic man with childlike intelligence, for the murder of Wanda Lopez, a convenience store clerk. His execution passed unnoticed for years until a team of Columbia Law School faculty and students almost accidentally chose to investigate his case and found that DeLuna almost certainly was innocent. They discovered that no one had cared enough about either the defendant or the victim to make sure the real perpetrator was found. Everything that could go wrong in a criminal case did. This book documents DeLunaÕs conviction, which was based on a single, nighttime, cross-ethnic eyewitness identification with no corroborating forensic evidence. At his trial, DeLunaÕs defense, that another man named Carlos had committed the crime, was not taken seriously. The lead prosecutor told the jury that the other Carlos, Carlos Hernandez, was a ÒphantomÓ of DeLunaÕs imagination. In upholding the death penalty on appeal, both the state and federal courts concluded the same thing: Carlos Hernandez did not exist. The evidence the Columbia team uncovered reveals that Hernandez not only existed but was well known to the police and prosecutors. He had a long history of violent crimes similar to the one for which DeLuna was executed. Families of both Carloses mistook photos of each for the other, and HernandezÕs violence continued after DeLuna was put to death. This book and its website (thewrongcarlos.net) reproduce law-enforcement, crime lab, lawyer, court, social service, media, and witness records, as well as court transcripts, photographs, radio traffic, and audio and videotaped interviews, documenting one of the most comprehensive investigations into a criminal case in U.S. history. The result is eye-opening yet may not be unusual. Faulty eyewitness testimony, shoddy legal representation, and prosecutorial misfeasance continue to put innocent people at risk of execution. The principal investigators conclude with novel suggestions for improving accuracy among the police, prosecutors, forensic scientists, and judges.

Download or read book The Electric Chair written by Craig Brandon and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2016-03-03 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a history of the electric chair and analyzes its features, its development, and the manner of its use. Chapters cover the early conceptual stages as a humane alternative to hanging, and the rivalry between Edison and Westinghouse that was one of the main forces in the chair's adoption as a mode of execution. Also presented are an account of the terrible first execution and a number of the subsequent gruesome employments of the chair. The text explores the changing attitudes toward the chair as state after state replaced it with lethal injection.

Download or read book I Wrote That One Too written by Steve Dorff and published by Hal Leonard Corporation. This book was released on 2017-09-01 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (Book). One of the most successful songwriters and composers of the last 25 years, Steve Dorff has penned over 20 Top 10 hits for pop and country artists around the world, including Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion, Blake Shelton, Smokey Robinson, Kenny Rogers, Ray Charles, Anne Murray, Whitney Houston, George Strait, Dolly Parton, Judy Collins, Cher, Dusty Springfield, Ringo Starr, and Garth Brooks. He has scored for television shows, including Growing Pains , Major Dad , Murder She Wrote , Reba , and several films, including Any Which Way but Loose for which he penned the titular song, and more recently, he has embarked on Broadway (forthcoming musical Josephine ). Chronicling his four decades behind the music, Steve Dorff gives anecdotes, advice, and insights into his journey. The book follows Steve from his childhood in Queens to Manhattan to Nashville and to his eventual arrival in Los Angeles, California. Oftentimes, songs are attributed to the singers who perform them, but it is the songwriter who really knows the story behind the story from conception to execution. Full of heartfelt stories, hard-earned wisdom, and delightful wit, I Wrote That One, Too . . . is a great read for musicians, music fans, and whoever has chased their dreams and survived the surprising but often serendipitous turns in the road.

Download or read book So Long as They Die written by and published by Human Rights Watch. This book was released on 2006 with total page 69 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recommendations. To state and federal corrections agencies - To state legislators and the U.S. Congress. -- I. Development of lethal injection protocols. Oklahoma - Texas - Tennessee - Lethal injection machines - Public access to lethal injection protocols. -- II. Lethal injection drugs. Potassium chloride - Pancuronium bromide - Sodium thiopental - The failure to review protocols. -- III. Lethal injection procedures. Qualifications of execution team - Checking the IV equipment - Level of anesthesia not monitored. -- IV. Physician participation in executions and medical ethics. -- V. Case study: Morales v. Hickman. -- VI. Botched executions. -- VII. International human rights and U.S. constitutional law. International human rights law - U.S. Constitutional law. -- Appendix A: State Execution Methods. -- Acknowledgements.

Download or read book Dead Man Walking written by Helen Prejean and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2011-02-02 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A profoundly moving spiritual journey through our system of capital punishment and an unprecedented look at the human consequences of the death penalty • "Stunning moral clarity.” —The Washington Post Book World • Basis for the award-winning major motion picture starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn "Sister Prejean is an excellent writer, direct and honest and unsentimental. . . . She almost palpably extends a hand to her readers.” —The New York Times Book Review In 1982, Sister Helen Prejean became the spiritual advisor to Patrick Sonnier, the convicted killer of two teenagers who was sentenced to die in the electric chair of Louisiana’s Angola State Prison. In the months before Sonnier’s death, the Roman Catholic nun came to know a man who was as terrified as he had once been terrifying. She also came to know the families of the victims and the men whose job it was to execute—men who often harbored doubts about the rightness of what they were doing. Out of that dreadful intimacy comes a profoundly moving spiritual journey through our system of capital punishment. Here Sister Helen confronts both the plight of the condemned and the rage of the bereaved, the fears of a society shattered by violence and the Christian imperative of love. On its original publication in 1993, Dead Man Walking emerged as an unprecedented look at the human consequences of the death penalty. Now, some two decades later, this story—which has inspired a film, a stage play, an opera and a musical album—is more gut-wrenching than ever, stirring deep and life-changing reflection in all who encounter it.

Download or read book Nory Ryan s Song written by Patricia Reilly Giff and published by Yearling. This book was released on 2009-02-19 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nory Ryan's family has lived on Maidin Bay on the west coast of Ireland for generations, raising a pig and a few chickens, planting potatoes, getting by. Every year Nory's father goes away on a fishing boat and returns with the rent money for the English lord who owns their cottage and fields, the English lord bent upon forcing the Irish from their land so he can tumble the cottages and clear the fields for grazing. Times are never easy on Maidin Bay, but this year, a terrible blight attacks the potatoes. No crop means starvation. Twelve-year-old Nory must summon the courage and ingenuity to find food, to find hope, to find a way to help her family survive.

Download or read book The Bicycle written by Gilbert King and published by Running Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This photographic survey is richly illustrated with images of one of the world's largest private collections of bicycles from the 1850s to the 1950s and includes some never-before-published photographs. From antique high wheelers and "boneshakers" to tandems, tricycles, and circus clown bikes, it proves a fascinating historical retrospective of the bicycle's development and evolution. Gil King is a writer, editor, and photographer whose work has appeared in many national publications.

Download or read book The Death of Innocents written by Helen Prejean and published by Hymns Ancient and Modern Ltd. This book was released on 2006 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sr Helen Prejean has accompanied five men to execution since she began her work in 1982. She believes the last two, Dobie Williams in Louisiana and Joseph O'Dell in Virginia, were innocent, but their juries were blocked from seeing all the evidence and their defence teams were incompetent. 'The readers of this book will be the first "jury" with access to all the evidence the trail juries never saw', she says. The Death of Innocents shows how race, prosecutorial ambition, poverty and publicity determine who dies and who lives. Prejean raises profound constitutional questions about the legality of the death penalty.

Download or read book The Martinsville Seven written by Eric W. Rise and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 1995-05-29 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers the first comprehensive treatment of the case of the Martinsville Seven, a group of young black men executed in 1951 for the rape of a white woman in Martinsville, Virginia. Covering every aspect of the proceedings from the commission of the crime through two appeals, Eric W. Rise reexamines common assumptions about the administration of justice in the South. Although the defendants confessed to the crime, racial prejudice undeniably contributed to their eventual executions. Rise highlights the efforts of the attorneys who, rather than focusing on procedural errors, directly attacked the discriminatory application of the death penalty. The Martinsville Seven case was the first instance in which statistical evidence was used to prove systematic discrimination against blacks in capital cases.

Download or read book New Iberia written by and published by University of Louisiana. This book was released on 2016-09-29 with total page 580 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New Iberia was founded by a handful of Spaniards in the spring of 1779. In the more than two hundred years that have elapsed since that event, the town, now city, has experienced a rich and stimulating history. The present volume seeks to relate many of the episodes that have occurred along New Iberia's historical path to the present. Presented in twenty-seven essays, the work focuses on the people who have fashioned the town. Here, in detail, are found the stories of the early Spanish settlers, the French Creoles and their Cajun neighbors, the Anglo-Americans and the Afro-Americans, all of whom have sought their fortunes on the third bend of Bayou Teche. Here are the stories of the pioneers, of antebellum lifestyles, of freedom, of the men and women of Reconstruction who struggled to rebuild a shattered world or start one anew. Here, too, are accounts of a South Louisiana town in the Gilded Age, the World War I era, the twenties and thirties. Here are the stories of some of the men and women who played a part in the development of New Iberia. The essays, the result of research and reminiscences, recount subjects as varied as land grants and libraries, steamboats and railroads, education and entertainment, yellow fever and flood, disaster and triumph.