3 new books about the death penalty

On October 24, Austin, Texas will host the 10th annual march to abolish the death penalty (2-5 pm on the southside steps of the Texas State Capitol, 11th & Congress, Austin.) It's a good time to explore this issue,  covered in the 7th class of the University Essays for the Class of Nonviolence  with 5 excellent readings.

Over the past few months that peaceCENTER has published three new anthologies about the death penalty:

Capital Ideas: 150 Classic Writers on the Death Penalty, from The Code of Hammurabi to Clarence Darrow, Susan Ives, editor, with a foreword by Joan Cheever Learn More & Buy

End of the Line: Five Short Novels About the Death Penalty, Susan Ives, editor. Includes: The Last Day of a Condemned Man, by Victor Hugo; Lois The Witch, by Elizabeth Gaskell; The Dead Alive, by Wilkie Collins; Billy Budd, by Herman Melville and The Seven Who Were Hanged, by Leonid Andreyev Learn More & Buy 

Death Sentences: 34 Classic Short Stories About the Death Penalty. Susan Ives, editor, with a foreword by Jay Brandon and an afterword by Roger C. Barnes, Ph.D. Learn more & buy. 

These three books are more about public philosophy than public policy. They explore who governments decide to kill, how they justify these decisions and the effect of state-sanctioned killing on society.