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A book by Rachel King
All
book royalties go to: Gripping stories of people who have lost a loved one to murder and oppose the death penalty. |
Book News For Immediate Release
Press Contact: Kenya M. Henderson
732.445.7762, ext. 626 Tel
732.445.7039 Fax
kenyah@rci.rutgers.edu
http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu
WHAT HAPPENS TO THE FAMILY MEMBERS OF DEATH ROW INMATES?
Those who support capital punishment often claim they do so because it provides justice and closure for the victims’ families. However, attorney Rachel King reminds us that there are other victims who must be considered in the debate over the death penalty – the families of the condemned.
Capital Consequences: Families of the Condemned Tell Their Stories
(Rutgers University Press) challenges readers to question the morality
of a punishment that devastates innocent families. King tells the stories
of families that have lost life savings supporting an accused, endured
intense public and media scrutiny, and are struggling to live with the
inhumane treatment their loved ones receive on death row. “This
one-of-a-kind book is devoted solely to giving voice to death row family
members, the forgotten victims of capital punishment,” says King,
an attorney with the Capital Punishment Project of the American Civil
Liberties Union.
Capital Consequences is a follow-up to King’s first book, Don’t
Kill in Our Names: Families of Murder Victims Speak Out Against the
Death Penalty (Rutgers University Press, 2003), in which members of
the nationwide group, Murders Victims’ Families for Reconciliation,
encouraged an end to capital punishment. In comparing both books, King
contends that families of death row inmates suffer a unique form of
grief. “Because their pain tends to elicit less attention and
empathy than that of crime victims’ families, it becomes much
more desperate and isolating.”
King’s latest book is a powerful reminder that tragic events have tragic consequences that far outreach their immediate victims. Capital Consequences also illustrates many flaws in the judicial system. Innocent people were wrongfully convicted, defense attorneys made mistakes, prosecutors withheld evidence, and the mentally ill and juveniles were sentenced to death.
Rachel King is an attorney with the Capital Punishment Project of the American Civil Liberties Union. She is a founding member of Alaskans Against the Death Penalty, and was active in a successful campaign to oppose reinstatement of the death penalty in Alaska. She has written on a variety of topics concerned with crime and capital punishment, and is author of Don’t Kill in Our Names: Families of Murder Victims Speak Out Against the Death Penalty (Rutgers University Press, 2003).
CAPITAL CONSEQUENCES
Families of the Condemned Tell Their Stories
By Rachel King
310 pages, 16 photographs, 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Cloth, $24.95. ISBN: 0-8135-3504-2
Publication Date: February 2005
For more information, or to arrange an interview with the author, please contact Kenya Henderson at 732.445.7762, ext. 626, or kenyah@rci.rutgers.edu. Please be sure to send two copies of any published reviews. Thanks!
All
royalties go to:
Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights
and Journey of Hope…From
Violence to Healing.
Author Rachel King, at the time of her death, Aug. 25, 2008, was a lawyer on staff of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, and former anti-death penalty organizer for
American Civil Liberties Union Capital Punishment Project.
Order online her books Don't Kill in Our Names and
Capital
Consequences: Families of the Condemned Tell Their Stories.
Read Rachel's articles and 2007 novel, Tales of the District free online!
Email Us ©2003-2009 www.rachelkingbooks.com