Within These Walls

Within These Walls PDF Author: Rev. Carroll Pickett
Publisher: Crossroad Press
ISBN:
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages :

Get Book

Book Description
FORMER TEXAS PRISON CHAPLAIN REV. CARROLL PICKETT, WORKING WITH TWO-TIME EDGAR AWARD WINNER AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR CARLTON STOWERS, PROVIDES THIS ELOQUENT, UNFLINCHING LOOK AT CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. Within These Walls is the powerful memoir of Rev. Carroll Pickett, who spent fifteen years as the death house chaplain at “The Walls,” the Huntsville unit of the Texas prison system. In that capacity, Reverend Pickett ministered to ninety-five men before they were put to death by lethal injection. They came with sinister nicknames like “The Candy Man” and “The Good Samaritan Killer,” some contrite, some angry—a few who might even have been innocent. All of them found in Reverend Pickett their last chance for an unbiased confessor who would look at them only as fellow humans, not simply as the convicted criminals the rest of society had already dismissed them as. This firsthand experience gave Reverend Pickett the unique insight needed to write an impassioned statement on the realities of capital punishment in America. The result is a thought-provoking and compelling book that takes the reader inside the criminal mind, inside the execution chamber, and inside the heart of a remarkable man who shares his thoughts and observations not only about capital punishment, but about the dark world of prison society

Within These Walls

Within These Walls PDF Author: Rev. Carroll Pickett
Publisher: Crossroad Press
ISBN:
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages :

Get Book

Book Description
FORMER TEXAS PRISON CHAPLAIN REV. CARROLL PICKETT, WORKING WITH TWO-TIME EDGAR AWARD WINNER AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR CARLTON STOWERS, PROVIDES THIS ELOQUENT, UNFLINCHING LOOK AT CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. Within These Walls is the powerful memoir of Rev. Carroll Pickett, who spent fifteen years as the death house chaplain at “The Walls,” the Huntsville unit of the Texas prison system. In that capacity, Reverend Pickett ministered to ninety-five men before they were put to death by lethal injection. They came with sinister nicknames like “The Candy Man” and “The Good Samaritan Killer,” some contrite, some angry—a few who might even have been innocent. All of them found in Reverend Pickett their last chance for an unbiased confessor who would look at them only as fellow humans, not simply as the convicted criminals the rest of society had already dismissed them as. This firsthand experience gave Reverend Pickett the unique insight needed to write an impassioned statement on the realities of capital punishment in America. The result is a thought-provoking and compelling book that takes the reader inside the criminal mind, inside the execution chamber, and inside the heart of a remarkable man who shares his thoughts and observations not only about capital punishment, but about the dark world of prison society

Death Row Chaplain

Death Row Chaplain PDF Author: Earl Smith
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1476777780
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Get Book

Book Description
A riveting, behind-the-bars look at one of America's most feared prisons: San Quentin-- by a minister to the lost souls sitting on death row. Himself a former criminal, Smith shares the most important lessons he's learned from years of helping inmates discover God's plan for them. Their stories show us that it is still possible to find God's grace and mercy from behind bars, and that it's never too late to turn our lives around.

Death Row Chaplain

Death Row Chaplain PDF Author: Byron E. Eshelman
Publisher: Englewood Cliffs, N.J. : Prentice Hall
ISBN:
Category : Capital punishment
Languages : en
Pages : 272

Get Book

Book Description
"An eyewitness account of life on Death Row, executions of the condemned, and a searching analysis of capital punishment by the chaplain at San Quentin State Prison."--Cover.

Now I Walk on Death Row

Now I Walk on Death Row PDF Author: Dale S. Recinella
Publisher: Chosen Books
ISBN: 1441214801
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 298

Get Book

Book Description
As one of the most influential finance lawyers in the country, Dale Recinella was living the American dream. With prestige, power, and unthinkable paychecks at his fingertips, his life was perfect... at least on paper. But on the heels of closing a huge deal for the Miami Dolphins, Dale's life took an unfathomable turn. He heard--and heeded--Jesus's call to sell everything he owned and follow him. Thus began a radical quest to live out the words of Jesus--no matter what the cost. In this quick-paced, well-written story, Recinella shares his amazing journey from growing up in the slums of Detroit to racing through "the good life" on Wall Street to finally walking the humble path of God--the path of ministry on death row.

God's Feet are in My Sandbox

God's Feet are in My Sandbox PDF Author: Rick Anderson
Publisher: Tate Publishing
ISBN: 1617398101
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 232

Get Book

Book Description
God's Feet are in My Sandbox is one of the most powerful and captivating first-hand accounts of God's movement in our world to affirm life, love, forgiveness and hope. Rick's story will rock your world! Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking and The Death of Innocents Having spent 16 years as chaplain for a unit of 2200 men, and ministering to 95 men on their last day in the Death House, I am totally committed to the fact that this is an important ministry and that these are people. Rev. Anderson writes greatly of how important it is to see them as people and to understand the fact that restorative justice is possible. He still has to face the system. Rev. Carroll Pickett, author of Within These Walls Dare to enter one man's Spirit-filled world that overflows with the rejuvenating power of Almighty God. Join him as he ministers to condemned men in their dungeons and testifies to God's unbridled love poured out. Walk beside him as he risks it all to reach out to the most hated man on Texas' Death Row.

The Prisoner and the Chaplain

The Prisoner and the Chaplain PDF Author: Michelle Berry
Publisher: Wolsak and Wynn
ISBN: 9781928088431
Category : Guilt
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book

Book Description
In the last twelve hours of his life, a death-row prisoner relays his story to a chaplain.

Let the Lord Sort Them

Let the Lord Sort Them PDF Author: Maurice Chammah
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 1524760285
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 369

Get Book

Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • A deeply reported, searingly honest portrait of the death penalty in Texas—and what it tells us about crime and punishment in America “If you’re one of those people who despair that nothing changes, and dream that something can, this is a story of how it does.”—Anand Giridharadas, The New York Times Book Review WINNER OF THE J. ANTHONY LUKAS AWARD In 1972, the United States Supreme Court made a surprising ruling: the country’s death penalty system violated the Constitution. The backlash was swift, especially in Texas, where executions were considered part of the cultural fabric, and a dark history of lynching was masked by gauzy visions of a tough-on-crime frontier. When executions resumed, Texas quickly became the nationwide leader in carrying out the punishment. Then, amid a larger wave of criminal justice reform, came the death penalty’s decline, a trend so durable that even in Texas the punishment appears again close to extinction. In Let the Lord Sort Them, Maurice Chammah charts the rise and fall of capital punishment through the eyes of those it touched. We meet Elsa Alcala, the orphaned daughter of a Mexican American family who found her calling as a prosecutor in the nation’s death penalty capital, before becoming a judge on the state’s highest court. We meet Danalynn Recer, a lawyer who became obsessively devoted to unearthing the life stories of men who committed terrible crimes, and fought for mercy in courtrooms across the state. We meet death row prisoners—many of them once-famous figures like Henry Lee Lucas, Gary Graham, and Karla Faye Tucker—along with their families and the families of their victims. And we meet the executioners, who struggle openly with what society has asked them to do. In tracing these interconnected lives against the rise of mass incarceration in Texas and the country as a whole, Chammah explores what the persistence of the death penalty tells us about forgiveness and retribution, fairness and justice, history and myth. Written with intimacy and grace, Let the Lord Sort Them is the definitive portrait of a particularly American institution.

Confronting the Death Penalty

Confronting the Death Penalty PDF Author: Robin Conley
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199334161
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 253

Get Book

Book Description
"Confronting the Death Penalty probes how jurors make the ultimate decision about whether another human being should live or die. Drawing on ethnographic and qualitative linguistic methods, Robin Conley explores the means through which language helps to make death penalty decisions possible - how specific linguistic choices mediate and restrict jurors', attorneys', and judges' actions and experiences while serving and reflecting on capital trials."--Provided by publisher.

Crossing the River Styx

Crossing the River Styx PDF Author: Russ Ford
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
ISBN: 0813949122
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 324

Get Book

Book Description
The Reverend Russ Ford, who served as the head chaplain on Virginia’s death row for eighteen years, raged against the inequities of the death penalty—now outlawed in Virginia—while ministering to the men condemned to die in the 1980s and 1990s. Ford stood watch with twenty-eight men, sitting with them in the squalid death house during the final days and hours of their lives. In July 1990 he accidentally almost became the 245th person killed by Virginia’s electric chair as he comforted Ricky Boggs in his last moments, a vivid episode that opens this haunting book. Many chaplains get to know the condemned men only in these final moments. Ford, however, spent years working with the men of Virginia’s death row, forging close bonds with the condemned and developing a nuanced understanding of their crimes, their early struggles, and their challenges behind bars. His unusual ministry makes this memoir a unique and compelling read, a moving and unflinching portrait of Virginia’s death row inmates. Revealing the cruelties of the state-sanctioned violence that has until recently prevailed in our backyard, Crossing the River Styx serves as a cautionary tale for those who still support capital punishment.

Death Row, Texas

Death Row, Texas PDF Author: Michelle Lyons
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1612438903
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 145

Get Book

Book Description
“Tells the story of a traumatic life spent witnessing hundreds of people being executed in Texas’ most infamous prison.” —Daily Beast “I can’t remember his name or his crime. What I remember is the nothingness. No family members, no friends, no comfort. Maybe he didn’t want them to come, maybe they didn’t care, maybe he didn’t have any in the first place. It was just a prison official and two reporters, including me, looking through the glass at this man strapped fast to the gurney, needles in both arms, staring hard at the ceiling. When the warden stepped forward and asked if he wanted to make a last statement, the man barely shook his head, said nothing and started blinking. That’s when I saw it: a single tear at the corner of his right eye. A tear he desperately wanted to blink away, a tear he didn’t want us to see. It pooled there for a moment before running down his cheek. The warden gave his signal, the chemicals started flowing, the man coughed, sputtered and exhaled. A doctor entered the room, pronounced the man dead and pulled a sheet over his head.” —Michelle Lyons, from the Prologue Michelle Lyons witnessed nearly 300 executions at the Texas State penitentiary. This “haunting, dark and hard to put down” behind-the-scenes look at those final moments of life relates shocking true stories of the inmate, his/her family members, prison officials, the death-row chaplain and the victim’s loved ones—all of whom come together in the death chamber (Houston Chronicle).