February 1, 2024
A reporter takes readers inside Tennessee's system of capital punishment. In 2018, following a decade-long hiatus, Tennessee resumed killing death row inmates. As Nashville-based journalist Hale writes, the last time he'd paid much attention to an execution was that of Timothy McVeigh in 2001--though within a decade another 489 people were executed around the country, "and I don't recall being aware of a single one." This harrowing book is sufficient penitence for his innocence, as he recounts his journey into the penal system as an authorized witness to death by lethal injection. He opens with a man who, mentally ill and traumatized in childhood, raped and murdered a 7-year-old girl, which prompts Hale to grapple with the conundrum that frames the discussion around capital punishment. The author evenhandedly presents the victim's side; the little girl's mother, for instance, voiced her dismay that her daughter's story was overshadowed by the murderer's troubled past. On the other hand, if one of his daughters had been the victim, "I would want to light the man on fire myself." Even so, Hale comes down on the side of ending capital punishment, and for several reasons: Juries are sometimes unaware of extenuating circumstances such as mental illness and substance abuse, wrongful convictions are not uncommon, and judges and juries are fallible. Yet, as another victim's relative observes, "if they give you a life sentence it means [you serve only] about thirteen years in jail before you're out." Tennessee's killings came to a temporary halt during the pandemic because vaccines, not lethal drug cocktails, were the order of the day--but this situation has changed again as the pandemic wanes, making it possible that "men on the row would start getting dates and the line would start moving again." A thoughtful, provocative contribution to the literature on the death penalty.
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April 1, 2024
In 2018, journalist Hale attended his first execution in Tennessee as a media representative. The state's first execution in nine years, it was surrounded by controversial questions about finding suitable drugs. Following this restart, inmates, many of whom spent decades on Death Row, began to see their own dates set, and their passionate supporters faced the prospect of losing men with whom they had built yearslong relationships. Hale joins their ranks, getting to know the men and writing about their lives, which often share similar traumas. Hale is honest about their crimes, never forgetting their victims. He also portrays their supporters, many driven by their Christian faith to remain by their sides, even standing vigil as they face execution. His advocacy becomes deeply personal as he witnesses additional executions and assesses the toll these experiences have on him. Hale's chronicle is an affecting and important contribution to discussions about the death penalty, especially with its focus on the grassroots supporters for Death Row inmates. There is crucial inside information here and a sense of urgency as execution dates are set and arrive.
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Starred review from April 8, 2024
In 2018, when reporting on Tennessee’s first execution in over 10 years, journalist Hale became intrigued by a group standing vigil at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution. As Hale relates in his moving and musical debut, this small but devoted coterie of regular death row visitors had formed haphazardly over the previous decade and hadn’t considered themselves activists. Some were journalists who had reported on death row; most began as religious practitioners visiting in a spiritual capacity and had not expected to develop anti–death penalty beliefs. But as the state planned more executions, the group began to advocate for clemency (“They’re trying to kill my friends,” one member explains). Hale tracks their growing distress as seven inmates are executed over two years. He also outlines his own gut-wrenching conversion to their point of view, explaining that, though he had previously been anti–death penalty, he had not viscerally felt the inhumanity of execution until meeting men about to be killed. The group believes such meetings will irrevocably alter anyone’s perspective on the morality of execution, and they continuously recruit new visitors for this reason. In graceful prose, Hale brings that ethos to his reporting, offering unflinching portrayals of the executed men, including their crimes, to give a bone-deep sense of their humanity. This beautiful and spiritually uplifting account finds hope in a dark place.