Condemned : inside the Sing Sing death house / Scott Christianson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Christianson, Scott.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Death row inmates--United States.

Death row inmates.

United States.

Physical Description:

166 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : New York University Press ; Wantage : University Presses Marketing, 2000.

Summary:

In the annals of American criminal justice, two prisons stand out as icons of institutionalized brutality and deprivation: Alcatraz and Sing Sing. In the 70 odd years before 1963, when the death sentence was declared unconstitutional in New York, Sing Sing was the site of almost one-half of the 1,353 executions carried out in the scare. More people were executed at Sing Sing than at any other American prison, yet Sing Sing's death house was, to a remarkable extent, one of the most closed, secret and mythologized places in modern America.

In this remarkable book, based on recently revealed archival materials, Scott Christianson takes us on a disturbing and poignant tour of Sing Sing's legendary death house, and introduces us to those whose lives Sing Sing claimed. Within the dusty files were mug shots of each newly arrived prisoner, most still wearing the out-to-court clothes they had on earlier that day when they learned their verdict and were sentenced to death. It is these sometimes bewildered, sometimes defiant, faces that fill the pages of Condemned, along with the documents of their last months at Sing Sing.

The reader follows prisoners from their introduction co the rules of Sing Sing, through their contact with guards and psychiatrists, their pleas for clemency, escape attempts, resistance, and their final letters and messages before being put to death. We meet the mother of five accused of killing her husband, the two young Chinese men accused of a murder during a robbery and the drifter who doesn't remember killing at all. While the majority of inmates are everyday people, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were also executed here, as were the major figures in the infamous MurderInc., forerunner of the American mafia. Page upon page, Condemned leaves an indelible impression of humanity and suffering.

Contents:

Sing Sing 10

Death House 16

Arrival 20

Rules 42

Guards 48

Shrinks 52

Ties 58

Cases 70

Clemency 80

Escape Attempts 86

Stay 96

The Letter 104

Thursday 114

The Chair 118

Witness 120

Resistance 126

Remains 132

Settling Up 138

Prisoners Legally Executed at Sing Sing Prison 147.

ISBN:

0814715966

OCLC:

42060860