Book Review: Gillespie, L. K. (2003). Inside the Death Chamber: Exploring Executions Boston: Allyn & Bacon. 143 pp

• Author: Jennifer Adger
• Published date: 01 September 2007
• Date: 01 September 2007
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0734016807304878
• Subject Matter: Articles

The book does an excellent job of summarizing and bringing to life the clemency petitions

of death row inmates in Missouri. One problem built into the book’s structure is that there is no

balance or other side to claims. The clemency petition is the inmate’s last chance to avoid exe-

cution, and all avenues are explored to halt the process. However, even if clemency petitions are

only half-truths, they still illustrate huge systematic problems in the Missouri’s capital system

and more likely the nation’s. Justice Denied is a well-researched presentation of the weaknesses

inherent in the capital system. Burnett argues that rather than extra attention being paid to due

process in capital cases, there is instead greater chance for error. This occurs because of a rush

to judgment and added pressure on all of the players in the system. The police face greater pres-

sure to solve capital crimes, prosecutors to obtain a conviction, and the governor to be seen as

tough on crime. Prevailing public opinion sees too many protections for inmates as they move

through the criminal justice system; Burnett’s analysis makes a strong claim that there is not

enough being done to avoid executing the wrong person.

Christopher Kudlac

Westfield State College, Westfield, Massachusetts

Gillespie, L. K. (2003). Inside the Death Chamber:

Exploring Executions Boston: Allyn & Bacon. 143 pp.

DOI: 10.1177/0734016807304878

The academic literature regarding capital punishment is a vast collection of disparate

methods, philosophies, and conclusions. Like other emotionally charged topics, the death

penalty has been the topic of some of the best, as well as some of the worst, recent social

science scholarship. Because the issues surrounding the death penalty are multifaceted and

complex, their examination and exploration must draw on the knowledge of multiple acad-

emic disciplines. There exists important work from criminological, political, cultural, legal,

and philosophical perspectives. L. Kay Gillespie’s work, Inside the Death Chamber:

Exploring Executions, is an attempt to explore the death penalty from a new perspective:

the ethnographic. Although there is much to commend in Gillespie’s work, the fundamental

problem of the ethnographic model cannot be ignored: By moving scholarship outside

scientific or analytical frameworks and instead providing an uncritical historical account,

Gillespie manages to ignore most of the pressing questions concerning the history and

application of capital punishment. In his attempt to provide a broader framework with

which to examine a complex issue, he is, in fact, stifling informed classroom discussion

because what little scholarship he does cite is often out of date or does not reflect the

predominant academic scholarship in the particular subtopic being discussed.

Gillespie certainly has the experience and expertise to write a scholarly text on executions in

the United States. Gillespie himself has sat on the Utah Board of Pardons, has been a govern-

ment witness for executions (including the execution of Timothy McVeigh), and has lectured

on criminal justice topics, including the death penalty, for the past 20 years. His great-grand-

father even conducted one of the first firing squad executions in Utah in 1866. This pedigree

should give him an insight into the application of the death penalty that illuminates the

Book Reviews 293