The last public hanging in the U.S., in Owensboro, Kentucky on June 7, 1936
David Row is a defense lawyer in Texas, the American State where the death penalty’s injustice and barbarism are most glaringly evident. The picture of Texas “justice” that he draws makes it clear that there is no more of a judicial system there than in any sleazy Communist dictatorship. Since 1996, the Conservative movement has launched a successful assault on the most fundamental principles of common law and liberty. Row is working from within the system, and within his society, so his approach to the subject seems rather timid to an outsider. In his universe, he is fighting an uphill battle, like a doctor trying to convince a primitive tribe that disease is caused by germs, not witch’s curses. For that is the real situation. Eighty percent of Americans are enthusiastic supporters of the death penalty, not because of any reasoned analysis, but because they are ignorant savages. They do it for the same reason that Aztecs ripped the hearts out of sacrificial victims and the Taliban executed women in football fields. It is in that kind of social environment that the Conservative agenda of destroying freedom and civilization can run rampant. To someone who lives outside this backward world (and outside the rampage of crime and senseless murders that it perpetuates), it is just embarrassing to read a book that shouldn’t have to be written.
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