Book Review: Fighting for their lives: Inside the experience of capital defense attorneys

• Published date: 01 March 2014
• Author: Kayla Kane
• Date: 01 March 2014
• DOI: 10.1177/0734016814523037
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

Sheffer, S. (2012).

Fighting for their lives: Inside the experience of capital defense attorneys. Nashville, Tennessee: Vanderbilt University

Press. vii, 216 pp. $19.56, ISBN 978-0-8265-1911-5.

Reviewed by: Kayla Kane, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA

DOI: 10.1177/0734016814523037

Thousands of individuals sit on death row across the United States. Postconviction capital defense

attorneys are the last chance for death row individuals to be spared the death penalty or receive a

delay in their execution. In Fighting for Their Lives: Inside the Experience of Capital Defense Attor-

neys, Susannah Sheffer attempts to understand the experiences of attorneys who do postconviction

capital defense work. The book contributes to the literature on capital punishment by providing read-

ers the opportunity to understand how capital punishment affects a group of individuals typically

excluded from conversation. Written by the current project director and staff writer for Murder Vic-

tims’ Families for Human Rights, this book is a resource for individuals interested in capital punish-

ment. The purpose of the book is to gain insight into the lives of individuals who work closely with

the death penalty.

Through her insider role of working with the death penalty, Sheffer was able to gain access to

this special population. Using snowball sampling technique, Sheffer gained access to 20 experi-

enced capital defenders and conducted in-person interviews with each during the time period of

January to November of 2010. To be eligible for participation, each attorney must have lost at least

one client to the death penalty. Sheffer revealed that most had lost 15–20 clients. The majority of

interviews took place in private locations and the names of the participants remained confidential.

The sample had an average of 19 years of practicing postconviction capital defense work, ranging

between 8 and 32 years. Of the 20 participants, 6 were women and 14 were men. At the time of the

interviews, all participants worked in the southern region of the United States, where the majority

of executions take place.

The book is divided into 10 logical and readable chapters. The first chapter details the author’s

methodology. The remaining nine chapters focus on various themes that Sheffer encountered during

her interviews. The four major themes I have identified are motivation, costs, rewards, and loss.

Motivations

Throughout the interviews, Sheffer was able to provide readers with insight into why these attor-

neys chose to practice in postconviction capital defense work and what motivates them to stay in a

field where turnover is quite high. Sheffer explores the various emotional, intellectual, social, and

personal motivations during her interviews. Intellectually, the attorneys are aware that their work

is one of the most challenging areas for lawyers to work in, a motivation that keeps the attorneys

from practicing another area of law. The social motivations are the most common explored through-

out the text. The examples of unethical executions weigh heavily on the attorneys. The social

responsibility to ‘‘fight the unjust system’’ keeps the attorneys highly motivated to do postconviction

work. On a personal level, the attorneys feel a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction, noting that the

desire to make a difference in the world is being fulfilled through this career.

Costs

Sheffer highlights the costs associated with being a postconviction capital defense attorney.

Although most attorneys’ work is time-sensitive, the capital defense attorneys are acutely aware that

a missed deadline can mean the difference between life and death for their client. This theme

110 Criminal Justice Review 39(1)