The Execution Protocol: Inside America's Capital Punishment Industry

by Stephen Trombley

Book Overview

Interviews with executioners, prisoners on death row, and the designer of the lethal injection machine, as well as personal observations, provide an eye-opening study of capital punishment in America.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0517591138
• ISBN13: 9780517591130
• Release Date: October 1992
• Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
• Length: 342 Pages
• Weight: 1.41 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A very serious work for those with curiosity in the Death Penalty

According to the front cover of my copy this book is unpleasant and may be morbid, nothing further than the truth. It is a very detailed piece of research that consists on a set of interviews, carefully written with utmost detail employing a neat and polished language describing all the agents intervening in a execution protocol tailored according to the mandates of the Criminal Laws of the State of Missouri in the United States, These interviews were conducted by an American Journalist living in the UK and encompasses very interesting approaches to the subject. Begins with Mr Leuchter the man who designed electric chairs, and lethal injection machines (one wonder how can a man can make a business of that..). Then the investigation focuses on the most part in the Missouri Death Row at the Potosi Prison where the author interviews, the warden, the chaplain, the doctor (...what did these people do and feel at the time of executions ..? (..Not one might think..) and Prisoners who were on the brink of being executed and then got a stay (...what did these people feel at those times ? more than interesting to find out..), and then how the lethal injection machine is operated to fulfil its lethal function and what happens if it fails The subject is very appealing and the purpose, in my opinion, is to study the mysterious relationship between life and death, particularly for those knowing their time has come. It is noteworthy, that this book was written at a time when the internet was not fully developed as a source of information. I consider this set of interviews a useful tool for those studying Criminal Justice

Manufacturing Death

It really is an industry, death by state decree. The prison that is the focus of Stephen Trombley's excellent book "The Execution Protocol:Inside America's Capital Punishment Industry"- a companion to his excellent documentary film of the same name-is Potosi Correctional Center in Missouri, though precious little "correcting " goes on there since it houses only the condemned and those serving life sentences. It provides jobs for many in an otherwise economically depressed area and Mr. Trombley has spoken to them all, both keepers and kept, guards, wardens , doctors, social workers, everybody involved in the danse macabre that is the choreographing of a human being's death. Potosi is unique among death rows in that the condemned aren't locked down for all but an hour a day. They can work at prison jobs and otherwise live a "normal" prison life until their death warrant is signed. Then, they are isolated, locked down, and ultimately poisoned by some of the very men that they had recently been interacting with on a more human level. Joseph Amrine, one of the condemned, tells the author that he hoped he could "...take it like a man. I'm not saying that I would holler and scream out of fear-basically out of anger. The majority would be out of anger". He had a right to his anger. Since the publication of "The Execution Protocol", Mr. Amrine was freed from prison after sixteen years on death row when DNA evidence cleared him. Mr. Amrine was one of the lucky ones, lucky that he had good, dogged lawyers who never quit and lucky he wasn't killed before the truth was shown. Capital punishment exists in an imperfect system run by imperfect people. One must wonder how many other innocent people weren't as lucky as Joseph Amrine.

Great Details

This book is not for the weak of heart. The author puts his biases aside and just clearly explains what goes on in this part of the American criminal justice system. He takes you through the equipment used and the manufactures of the equipment. He looks over the legal framework for the convicted man / woman. The process of actually testing and performing the sentence. He also spends some time talking to people that are for and against the method of punishment. All in all this is a very interesting and well-done book that tells the reader everything they would want to know about this process. If you are interested in law enforcement, the BoP or criminal law then I would suggest finding a copy of this book.

Should be required reading in the US.

After reading this, you can't be in any doubt that the Death Penalty, no matter how it is carried out, is a "cruel and unusual punishment". Lots of history, as well as interviews with prisoners (many of whom have since been excecuted) make this a well-rounded read. I just hope that this book's reach goes beyond the converted.

Too technical I did not find it interesting

The books focus mainly on technical gadgets and stuff, is not hard to put it down I expected an insight story about how offenders feel the last day of his life, overall dissapointing