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Ultimate Punishment
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We highly recommend Ultimate
Punishment, by Scott Turow List
Price: $18.00 Below is a review of this fascinating book. |
| Review of
Ultimate Punishment, by Scott Turow (best-selling author of Presumed
Innocent and other novels). Reviewer: Mark Lamendola. I’ve liked Turow's novels ever since I read Burden of Proof. When I first began reading Ultimate Punishment, I was disappointed that it was non-fiction because I had so looked forward to another gripping tale from Turow. My disappointment soon gave way to keen interest. And then to intense fascination. Turow handled the topic so well, he had me challenging my own long-held beliefs. Whether you are for or against capital punishment, Turow's treatment of this topic will have you doing the same. This begs the question of what Turow was doing writing a non-fiction work, and one about the death penalty at that. Scott Turow has served as both a prosecuting attorney and a defense attorney in capital cases. When the governor of Illinois tapped him to serve on a special commission to investigate and report on the Illinois death penalty, he began a journey through a system that was far more broken than anyone had realized. What he reveals in this book reminds me of the depravity Senator Roth revealed in his book about the IRS. When the government runs amok, justice is merely an abstract concept—not a reality. Serving on the commission required Turow to do intensive research and analysis, and he shares the results of that with the reader. Turow's views were different coming out of the experience than they were going into it. And so were those of nearly everyone on the commission. In this book, Turow looks at the arguments both for and against the death penalty - both the fallacious ones and the solid ones. He shows us how the underlying assumptions of public policy fail to square with what really goes on. The book isn't a diatribe against the death penalty, nor is it an endorsement for it. Instead, it's a remarkably thoughtful look at all of the issues. The world would be a much better place if all public policies underwent such a thoughtful exploration and evaluation. Sadly, they don’t. Whether they hear a capital case or one of lesser import, our courts would serve society better if every judge, attorney, and potential juror read Ultimate Punishment. If you fall into one of those three categories, you should consider this book required reading. |
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