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caseythereader 's review for:
Let the Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty
by Maurice Chammah
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
📚 LET THE LORD SORT THEM is essentially a legal history of the death penalty, particularly in Texas. I kind of assumed we'd always had such a high execution rate, and I did not know we'd almost eradicated it until a 1972 Supreme Court ruling kicked off a backlash that brought it back.
📚 This book is very explicit in drawing a straight line from slavery through lynchings and Jim Crow to our current incarceration system - right down to how many prisons are built on former plantations and use inmate labor for farming.
📚 There are a lot of people and cases in this book, and it was sometimes hard to keep them all straight. I'd recommend reading a hard copy to make it easier to flip back and forth.
📚 I wish this book had taken a stronger stance on the idea that people shouldn't be executed, full stop, rather than leaning on mitigating circumstances like brain injuries, bad childhoods, learning disabilities, etc., but I understand that mainstream rhetoric on this topic isn't entirely there yet and that's what this book focuses on.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder