Filed by KOSU News in Art & Life.
February 8, 2010

Attorney David Dow has made a career out of defending death row inmates in Texas — a state that boasts the highest number of death row executions nation-wide since 1976. Many of his clients have died — most of them were guilty.

But Dow says they should have been sentenced to life in prison instead of death at the hands of the state.

“The person that we’re executing is simply not the same person who committed the crime that landed that person on death row in the first place,” Dow says.

Dow’s new book, The Autobiography of an Execution, is in part an exploration of the politics behind the death penalty and an argument for its abolition. It’s also a memoir; Dow delves into how this line of work has affected his family life.

David Dow is the litigation director at the Texas Defender Service and teaches law at the University of Houston Law Center. He joins Terry Gross for a conversation about his new book and why we need to put an end to the capital punishment. Copyright 2010 National Public Radio