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Death at Midnight: The Confession of an Executioner

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ISBN-10:: 1555533566
ISBN-13:: 9781555533564
Pub. Date:: 05/07/1998
Publisher:: Northeastern University Press

ISBN-10:: 1555533566
ISBN-13:: 9781555533564
Pub. Date:: 05/07/1998
Publisher:: Northeastern University Press

Death at Midnight: The Confession of an Executioner

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Overview

While an increasingly outspoken American public is quick to endorse the death penalty, the voices of those who experience the chilling reality of executing another human being are seldom heard.

Donald A. Cabana chronicles a personal journey through the nation's prison system that culminated in giving the order to execute two death row inmates. Cabana's compelling account brings the reader inside the "secretive, mysterious world of the execution chamber" to witness the process of an execution and to experience the emotions of the executioner and the man strapped in the chair known as "black death."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781555533564
Publisher:	Northeastern University Press
Publication date:	05/07/1998
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.65(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Donald A. Cabana teaches criminal justice at Southern Mississippi University. He was a prison administrator at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution in Bridgewater, the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman, the Alachua County Department of Corrections in Gainesville, Florida, and the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City. He lives in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

What People are Saying About This

Sister Helen Prejean

"After politicians have made speeches and passed laws to legalize state executions, they're nowhere around when the Don Cabanas go to work in the middle of the night to kill a man or woman. 'Breathe deep,' Cabana advises an inmate about to be gassed so that he would die quickly. But after two executions Cabana couldn't do it anymore, and in these searing, soul-baring pages he tells us why."
— Sister Helen Prejean, C.S.J., author of Dead Man Walking

From the Publisher

"After politicians have made speeches and passed laws to legalize state executions, they're nowhere around when the Don Cabanas go to work in the middle of the night to kill a man or woman. 'Breathe deep,' Cabana advises an inmate about to be gassed so that he would die quickly. But after two executions Cabana couldn't do it anymore, and in these searing, soul-baring pages he tells us why."—Sister Helen Prejean, C.S.J., author of Dead Man Walking

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Editorial Reviews

What makes [Cabana’s] book powerful is that he doesn’t cloud his experiences with a philosophical diatribe. He carries no agenda except that of a confessor. Though the memoir gains greatly from Cabana’s expertise in corrections and will no doubt provide ammunition for anti-death penalty factions, it is best read as the outpouring of one man who simply wants to tell us of the awfulness of putting someone to death, someone who is unmistakably human, someone like you and me.”—Paul Bennett, Philadelphia Inquirer

“In this folksy narrative, Cabana, a prison official for 25 years, recounts his experiences and his change of heart about the death penalty . . . A gentle and affecting addition to the Dead Man Walking canon.”—Kirkus Reviews

"After politicians have made speeches and passed laws to legalize state executions, they're nowhere around when the Don Cabanas go to work in the middle of the night to kill a man or woman. 'Breathe deep,' Cabana advises an inmate about to be gassed so that he would die quickly. But after two executions Cabana couldn't do it anymore, and in these searing, soul-baring pages he tells us why."—Sister Helen Prejean, C.S.J., author of Dead Man Walking

From the Publisher

Cabana, a former warden in Massachusetts, Florida, and Mississippi, gives a powerful narrative account of the realities of capital punishment from the beginning of his 25 year career in corrections and culminating with his involvement in the executions of Edward Earl Johnson and Connie Ray Evans. He describes in vivid detail the last two weeks of the latter's life, the secretive world of executions, and his own personal conversion to an anti-death penalty ethic. Cabana currently teaches criminal justice at the University of Southern Mississippi. No bibliography. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

In this folksy narrative, Cabana, a prison official for 25 years, recounts his experiences and his change of heart about the death penalty.
Cabana elaborates on his early fascination with corrections systems, which brought him from his native Massachusetts to the Parchman Penitentiary in Mississippi. When Cabana arrived at the untraditional Parchman in 1972, inmates planted acres of cotton and vegetables, and slaughtered their own cows and pigs; they were housed in small "camps" scattered acros the 20,000-acre facility. Cabana left Parchman a year later, returning as warden in 1984 to find Parchman considerably altered—it was "just another prison," lacking crops but containing a new gas chamber. Cabana avoided entering the chamber for years, but he did visit the men on death row and notes that all of these inmates share the same deeply disadvantaged background. He is closest to Connie Ray Evans, a relatively mild soul who had killed a convenience-store clerk. Cabana describes with real affection—and a twinge of guilt—how their relationship developed, despite their differences. Evans, remorseful and philosophical, actually provides comfort to Cabana about the nature of their friendship. In 1987, faced with a rising tide of anti-crime fervor, the state of Mississippi randomly chose inmates to execute, and Evans was the second. In one horrifying scene, Cabana met with Evans's mother, who pled in vain for her son's life. A few days later, Cabana oversaw Evans's execution, and within the year he left prison corrections forever. Cabana argues ardently and rationally against the death penalty, not because of his sympathy for Evans, but because it's clear to Cabana that executing criminals does nothing to eliminate the roots of criminal behavior.
A gentle and affecting addition to the Dead Man Walking canon.

Kirkus Reviews

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Overview

Product Details

About the Author

What People are Saying About This

Customer Reviews