The Death of Innocents : An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions

Rating:
Summary: Shamefully One Sided
Review: The good Sister Prejean is, perhaps, the perfect of example of somebody so fanatically opposed to the death penalty that they compromise the principles of fairness and accuracy in their crusade.
As a long time student of the death penalty in the US and Japan, I've heard every argument against the death penalty. I'll be the first to admit, as a supporter of capital punishement, that there are a number of legitimate questions about the use of the death penalty in the United States. However, the often used tactic by certain death penalty opponents to claim hardened killers are "factually innocent" in the face of overwhelming guilt continues to astonish me.
In this book, I am most familiar with the case of the super-villain Joseph O'Dell, so I will confine my remarks to his case. First, thanks to Sam Jones for his review on this board of the book. He did a great job of explaining the court aspects of the case. It's unreal that as I write this, only 8 of 20 readers gave the review a "helpful" recommmendation. I guess solid evidence doesn't amount to much for them.
And, as for O'Dell being a "man with a checkered past," as in another review of the book, let's take a hard look at his past. O'Dell had over a dozen felonies in his life, most of them for crimes of violence, such as kidnapping, murder, rape, assault, etc. As noted by Sam Jones, he attempted a shockingly similar crime to the one he was eventually executed for. Before the police showed to rescue her, his victim was told by O'Dell, "Do you know what necrophilia is? I'm going to have sex with you whether you're alive or dead. I would prefer alive, but that's up to you." What kind of human being could say and do such a thing? Think about this.
A man with a checkered past, indeed. And Mr. O'Dell once murdered another inmate while in prison. Need we we go on about this "factually innocent" man?
The evidence against O'Dell in the case for which he was executed is overwhelming. It has already been discussed in one review and we need not go over it again. Anyone can go to the website(s) for the courts in Virginia and see the evidence for themselves.
It is intellectually dishonest to keep repeating that O'Dell is innocent without a serious examination of the evidence and a discussion of that evidence. This book does neither.

Rating:
Summary: Broadening the Discourse
Review: From the first page, this is an impossible story to put down, and although the outcomes of these tales are dark, they pave the way to a hopeful place that Helen Prejean is so capable of championing: broadening the discourse on one of the things that divides America the most. While you may think you know where you stand on the death penalty in America, Sister Helen lays open the ambiguity in even the most hardened heart. Where "Dead Man Walking" attempted, with neither judgment nor justification, to take us inside of an experience that few will ever know, "Death of Innocence" puts a very human face on the realities of a flawed system of justice, and the price paid by those who it continues to fail. Ten years later, Prejean's call arrives with a prescription for repair: broaden the discourse. "The Death of Innocence" is a gateway to thinking critically about the death penalty in America, and to shaping a dialogue around the road back to justice. Read the book, then be sure to connect with Sister Helen through her website (www.deathofinnocents.com) and her blog, where she's inviting Americans of all ages to engage in a deeper exploration of the issues and begin cultivating solutions. Some surprising twists ahead. The story starts with Dobie Gillis Williams, but does not end there, as even now a new chapter unfolds in his tale outside the pages of the book, and the promise of a dying man is about to be kept. Don't let this nun fool you: the habit she wears best is one of sincere elevation.

Rating:
Summary: An eye opener and a challenge
Review: I was fortunate enough to read an advanced copy of The Death of Innocents and it knocked my socks off.

It's written in that down-home, inimitable style Sister Helen Prejean brings to both her writing and her speaking. The stories - especially the one of Dobie Gillis Williams - will ring your heart.

But the book goes a lot farther than telling stories about innocent people executed. It takes on the Supreme Court, Justice Scalia in particular, and challenges a system of justice which is so caught up in process and procedure it appears to have left human beings out of the equation. Finally, it asks the question, when we let such a system continue unchecked, what part of our own humanity do we lose?

Reading The Death of Innocents is an education; it's also a plain, good read.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining not comprehensive.... :(
Review: If you are serious about the subject that Prejean writes on you should always do a little research on your own. That means you don't limit yourself to what defense attorneys or anti-death penalty groups disseminate. It's what doesn't get printed or written about that makes you wonder more. Omitting evidence that indicates guilt where it exists is a disingenuous tactic.

These works represent wonderful "entertainment" but are not conclusive or comprehensive. As noted in other reviews, Prejean excludes certain facts that don't necessarily agree with what makes her works interesting. Check court opinions on the Internet or the fine print in old news articles.

Rating:
Summary: Get ready to lose your complacency!
Review: If you read this book with an even slightly open mind, it will rock your world. If you are a supporter of capital punishment, you will question your beliefs. (Assuming, of course, that slightly open mind.) If you are like me, a moderate who had come to believe that the death penalty is probably wrong, you will be shaken out of your complacency. This book is terribly disturbing. How can I be sitting here, comfortable in my cozy middle class life, going to my lovely church and teaching Sunday School. How can I be just going about my life, unconcerned, when MY government is killing people in MY name? How can Christians sit by and let this happen? We can't!

Rating:
Summary: Shameful ignorance of the evidence.
Review: In lionizing convicted murderer Joseph O'Dell as being an innocent man railroaded to his 1997 execution by Virginia prosecutors, Sister Helen Prejean presents a skewed summary of the case to bolster her anti-death penalty agenda. While she is a gifted speaker, she is out of her element when it comes to "telling it as it was" in these cases.

Prejean got to walk with O'Dell into the death chamber at Greensville Correctional Center on July 22, 1997. However, she wasn't in Virginia Beach some 12 years earlier when he committed the crime for which he was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. That is where the real demon was evident, not the sweet talking condemned con-man that she met behind bars.

O'Dell was, in the words of then Virginia Beach Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Albert Alberi (case prosecutor), one of the most savage, dangerous criminals he had encountered in a two decade career. Indeed, O'Dell had spent most of his adult life incarcerated for various crimes since the age of 13 in the mid-1950's.

At the time of the Schartner murder in Virginia, O'Dell had been recently paroled from Florida where he had been serving a 99 year sentence for a 1976 Jacksonville abduction that almost ended in a murder of the female victim (had not police arrived) in the back of his car. The circumstances of that crime were almost identical to those surrounding Schartner's murder. The victim of the Florida case even showed up in Virginia to testify at the trial.

Briefly, let me outline some of the facts about the case:

Victim Helen Schartner's blood was found on the passenger seat of Joseph O'Dell's vehicle. Tire tracks matching those on O'Dell's vehicle were found at the scene where Miss Schartner's body was found. The tire tread design on O'Dell's vehicle wheels were so unique, an expert in tire design couldn't match them in a manual of thousands of other tire treads. The seminal fluids found on the victim's body matched those of Mr. O'Dell and pubic hairs of the victim were found on the floor of his car.

The claims that O'Dell was "denied" his opportunity to present new DNA evidence on appeals were frivolous. In fact, he had every opportunity to come forward with this evidence, but his lawyers refused to reveal to the court the full findings of the tests which they had arranged to be done on a shirt with blood stains, which O'Dell's counsel claimed might show did not have blood marks from the defendant or the victim.

Dirty defense lawyer tricks, which were overlooked by Prejean. The city and state government gave O'Dell an estimated $100,000 for his defense team -- an unprecedented amount that nearly bankrupted the entire indignent defense fund for the state. He had great lawyers, expert forensic investigators and every point at the trial was contested two to five times. There was no "rush to justice" in this case.

O'Dell's alibi for the night of Schartner's murder was that he had gotten thrown out of the bar where he encountered Schartner following a brawl. However, none of the several dozen individuals supported his contention - there weren't any fights that night. Rather, several saw Miss Schartner getting into O'Dell's car on what would be her last ride. But Prejean would want us to believe the claims of felon Joseph O'Dell.

He had three trips to the United States Supreme Court and the "procedural error" which Prejean claims ultimately doomed him was the result of simple ignorance of basic appeals rules by his lawyers. Nothing in the record ever suggested that Joseph O'Dell, two time killer and rapist, was anything but guilty of the murder of Helen Schartner. Justice was properly served.

Rating:
Summary: Distortion of facts in Dobie Gillis Williams case
Review: Sister Helen Prejean certainly has a right to voice her opinion regarding the death penalty. As a family member of the victim in the Dobie Gillis Williams case, it was very disturbing to see that she only presented a one-sided view. She did not attend Williams's trial nor bother to review ALL of the evidence. So many of the statements she makes in this book regarding the Dobie Williams case are distorted. It doesn't seem that accuracy and truth are as important to Sister Prejean as promoting her views on the death penalty. She did not even show enough respect to the victim in this horrible crime to spell her name correctly. Her name is Sonya Merritt Knippers, not Sonja. This is only one of the erroneous or misleading statements in this book. I am simply saying that everyone has a right to his or her opinion regarding the death penalty---but if you are writing a book about particular cases---it should be fair, accurate and truthful.

Rating:
Summary: An Impossible Book To Put Down
Review: Sister Helen presents a persuasive case that both Louisiana and Virginia have recently executed innocent men. Dobie Gillis, executed in 1999 by Louisiana taxpayers , and Joseph O'Dell, executed in 1997 by Virginia taxpayers, were factually innocent and the legal machinery in those States ignored exculpatory evidence. If Sister Helen discovered that two innocent men have been executed, one has to wonder how many more innocent men may be lying in graves in the USA.





Rating:
Summary: Thought-provoking and thoughtfully written
Review: The world-at-large first met Sister Helen Prejean in 1993 when her bestselling book DEAD MAN WALKING was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and then produced as an Oscar-winning movie by the same title. But Sister Prejean's work with men on death row began more than a decade before her celebrity was born.

As a spiritual adviser, Sister Prejean has accompanied five men to their deaths. Two, she believes, were innocent: Dobie Gillis Williams and Joseph Roger O'Dell. In her own words about THE DEATH OF INNOCENTS: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions, she warns, "Brace yourself. These stories are going to break your heart."

Dobie Gillis Williams had an IQ of 65 and severe arthritis. Home on a weekend furlough in July 1984 from a minimum-security detention facility (where he was serving for burglary), Dobie was one of three men --- three black men --- rounded up for questioning in the murder of Sonja Knipper. Mrs. Knipper, her husband claimed, was murdered in her home by a black man; he knows this because she shouted from the bathroom, "A black man is killing me." Dobie was accused of squeezing through a tiny window and stabbing Mrs. Knipper multiple times. He was tried and within a week was sentenced to death, despite monumental problems in forensic findings.

Joseph O'Dell was arrested for the murder and rape of Helen Schartner in 1985. Prosecuters convinced the jury that O'Dell, a Caucasian male with a checkered past, abducted Helen outside a lounge, raped her, bludgeoned her to death, and then dumped her in an empty field. Again, evidence aside, O'Dell was sentenced in six quick weeks to death.

Sister Prejean writes of these two cases, "The tragic truth is that you as a reader of this book have access to truths about forensic evidence, eyewitnesses, and prosecutorial maneuvers that Dobie's and Joseph's jurors never heard." According to the good nun, scant circumstantial evidence unveiled in the courtrooms didn't hold a candle to the facts uncovered after the trials (and some before the trials!), while the men waited on death row for their ultimate demise. Sister Prejean spells out in no uncertain terms the evidence that would have saved Dobie and Joseph. But attempts to bring new evidence to light failed, and both men were wrongfully executed.

As in DEAD MAN WALKING, THE DEATH OF INNOCENTS puts the death penalty issue under a magnifying glass. Prejean reminds us that "Recently we have been witness to astounding admissions of error by state and federal courts forced to free 116 wrongly convicted people from death row since 1973, and the numbers keep growing." She reminds us that the law is fallible, and so are the humans who regulate it. THE DEATH OF INNOCENTS is thought-provoking and thoughtfully written. I'd expect nothing less from Sister Prejean, who has not only devoted the last 20 years to inmates on death row but also to educating proponents of both sides of the death penalty debate.

--- Reviewed by Roberta O'Hara

Rating:
Summary: Execution of the factually innocent
Review: This is an extremely important book that documents in great detail the cases of Dobie Gillis (Executed 1999 in Louisiana) and Joseph O'Dell (1997 in Virginia). Sister Helen presents a persuasive case that both men were factually innocent and that the legal machinery in those States turned a blind eye to exculpatory evidence. The facts of the cases are presented impartially. Supporters of the death penalty who claim that the innocent are rarely if ever executed may wish to also read this book and consider the facts.
A long section also examines changing attitudes in the Christian community and in the Catholic Chuch in particular, leading to an official change in Catholic teaching in 1997 that ended its tacit support of the death penalty. Sister Helen may have played no small part in helping bring about that change.
The book may not convince everyone, but it presents a wealth of information that needs to be included in any debate on the death penalty.
If Sister Helen stumbled across two cases of factually innocent who have been executed, how many are out there on various Death Rows and about to be executed?